"This past year has been a textile industry and fiber arts deep dive for me; this book was my diving board. From a flock of Saxon Merino sheep through multiple dye processes and mills, Parkes tells us much more than the story of a bale of wool: she gives us a look inside an industry damaged by the pursuit of fast fashion and cheap labor, and connects us to the people who make their living at each stage. It's fun, fascinating, and part of a larger call to action."
Publisher Abrams Press
Publication Date 2021-04-06
Section Games & Hobbies / All Staff Suggestions / Nonfiction Suggestions / Story B.
Format Paperback
ISBN 9781419735370
A fast-paced account of the year Clara Parkes spent transforming a 676-pound bale of fleece into saleable yarn, and the people and vanishing industry she discovered along the way
Join Clara Parkes on a cross-country adventure and meet a cast of characters that includes the shepherds, dyers, and countless workers without whom our knitting needles would be empty, our mills idle, and our feet woefully cold. Travel the country with her as she meets a flock of Saxon Merino sheep in upstate New York, tours a scouring plant in Texas, visits a steamy Maine dyehouse, helps sort freshly shorn wool on a working farm, and learns how wool fleece is measured, baled, shipped, and turned into skeins.
In pursuit of the perfect yarn, Parkes describes a brush with the dangers of opening a bale (they can explode), and her adventures from Maine to Wisconsin (“the most knitterly state”) and back again; along the way, she presents a behind-the-scenes look at the spinners, scourers, genius inventors, and crazy-complex mill machines that populate the yarn-making industry. By the end of the book, you’ll be ready to set aside the backyard chickens and add a flock of sheep instead. Simply put, no other book exists that explores American culture through the lens of wool.
