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, Clara 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.
