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[firecat]

"Popularity of woollen coffins soars" in the UK.

Which made me wonder whether if I were dying I would like watching friends knit me a woollen coffin. Or what it would be like to knit my own.

(Although actually I want to be cremated, and it would be a shame to burn up good knitting with my body.)

Comments

[lilacsigil]

We buried our cat wrapped in a really nice piece of wool cloth because he always liked to get into our crafts and curl up to sleep. Actually, it sounds really cozy!

[firecat]

Awww.

[oursin]

Back to the C17th! - when 'burial in woolen' was quite a thing. Memory says it was something to do with encouraging the wool-trade, but it was a long time ago (like, the summer after graduation when I was being a genealogical researcher and looking at parish registers of burials etc). (This actually seems about right.

[firecat]

The Telegraph article mentioned that!

The Wikipedia article you linked to has an interesting reference: Rivoli, Pietra (2005). The Travels of a T-Shirt in The Global Economy. I'll have to check that out.

[flarenut]

Given the beginning shortage of decent timber back then, I can also imagine that the powers that were would have wanted to discourage the wanton destruction (in effect) of high-quality boards. (For a coffin, unless you're going to do way complicated glue-up, you need boards at least 10" wide by 1" nominal, and preferably clear because knotholes, well.) So at the cheapest you're talking something like 40 board-feet of clear pine (or oak, or whatever), which would otherwise be enough to make a couple of beds or dining tables, or a cabinet, or framing for a shed, or planking for a goodly chunk of a boat.

[nitoda]

Looking at the manufacturers' site, it's way more like woollen blanketing - not a knitted product at all! - and tested for weight bearing up to and over 600 pounds. Looks good to me.

[eggcrack]

That's a pretty good idea! I'll probably go for cremation too, but I like that there are options for people who wish otherwise. It's just nice.

[graymalkin13.livejournal.com]

I love the idea of a woollen coffin. Watching people knit it sounds very comforting, and the coffin itself would be very cosy. I too want to be cremated, but if I were going to be buried, I would appreciate the use of materials that would return to the earth along with me. I don't want anything left behind, taking up space and using up resources like wood or metal.

*reads article*

I like the other alternative coffin materials listed in the article, but I like woollen best because if you can watch your friends knit it, it's much more personal and comforting.

Excellent article.

[graymalkin13.livejournal.com]

I think this article is my favorite thing that I've read all year. :D

Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Knitted coffins, how awesome.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

I've always been on board with the cremation option, but with qualms, because it both creates greenhouse gasses and because I wasn't sure how much of a "natural cycle" thing it was to burn all the stuff I've taken in over time. A little while ago I read somewhere about a procedure where they basically freeze-dry you or something and then use powerful low-frequency sonic waves to reduce you to your consistent elements. I have to look this up again and get a better idea of how it works. That seemed like it might be better. One of the options was to then mix it in with soil and plant a tree in it, which seemed like it would give people a place to come if they wanted to visit.

[firecat]

Yeah, I'm not particularly attached to cremation; it's just that personally I don't like the idea of having a body-sized chunk of land set aside for the exclusive use of my body for several hundred years longer than I am alive. 10 or 25 years, no problem, if that's what the people left behind want. Or freeze-drying, or being made into jewelry, or whatever.