I find the most interesting stuff by following ebertchicago

[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

[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.