Renna Shesso's Blog - Posts Tagged "pagan"
North Star, spinning, “baa-ram-ewe…”
I read a post recently from someone looking for “cruelty-free” wool, coming (I guess) from an assumption that all human dealings with domesticated animals are certain to be cruel and exploitive.
Wool isn’t like that. Sheep-shearing doesn’t hurt the sheep any more than a haircut hurts us. It’s done in the spring as the weather warms and the lambs will be arriving. The shearing creates better sanitary conditions for the lambing. And that thick wool “coat” is hot, so the sheep don’t mind having it removed. Another plus: wool is a renewable resource.
Once we just wore animal hides (and perhaps a fig leaf or two). Gradually we clever humanoids figured out how to twist plant fibers together – linen, nettle, the fibrous long-stalked stuff. Eventually a shift from plant fibers to wool changed what we wear. Wool takes dye much better than linen, so our clothing became more colorful, and color-based weaving patterns evolved.
Nowadays, many women are spinning from their own sheep – it’s like the organic gardening of fiber production...
The blog continues here
Wool isn’t like that. Sheep-shearing doesn’t hurt the sheep any more than a haircut hurts us. It’s done in the spring as the weather warms and the lambs will be arriving. The shearing creates better sanitary conditions for the lambing. And that thick wool “coat” is hot, so the sheep don’t mind having it removed. Another plus: wool is a renewable resource.
Once we just wore animal hides (and perhaps a fig leaf or two). Gradually we clever humanoids figured out how to twist plant fibers together – linen, nettle, the fibrous long-stalked stuff. Eventually a shift from plant fibers to wool changed what we wear. Wool takes dye much better than linen, so our clothing became more colorful, and color-based weaving patterns evolved.
Nowadays, many women are spinning from their own sheep – it’s like the organic gardening of fiber production...
The blog continues here
