“I have always loved wool — I mean really and truly loved it, like Claude Monet loved his Giverny and Julia Child loved her butter. Discovering a new wool yarn, smelling it, touching it, dreaming of what I can do with it, knitting and washing a swatch and seeing how it transforms…those things make me fill complete and fulfilled.” –Clara Parkes, from The Knitter’s Book of Wool
Do you dream of sheep? Not necessarily counting sheep to fall back asleep, but of their thick wool, gentle eyes, soft, baa-ing voices….yeah, me neither. But I wonder if Clara Parkes ever has. This lady has put some serious thought into sheep and wool.
About a third of this book is dedicated to wool; the various breeds of sheep it comes from, the way it plays with other fibers; all about staple length and crimp, for starters. She breaks the sheep breeds down into the particular characteristics of their wool, such as fineness, staples length, crimp, and luster. There are absolutely adorable illustrations of each breed, ranging from the California Variegated Mutant (really) sheep to Shetland, with other breeds like Merino and Bluefaced Leicester in between. She’s put more consideration into sheep and wool yarn than I ever have about…probably anything.
If I were a spinner I’d adore this book. As a knitter I love it. The amount of detail about staple length and crimp really lends itself to people who spend a lot of time with those fibers running between their fingers. Spinning, for some reason, is the only fiber art I’ve tried that didn’t really stick. I use my spindle to twist cords for bags. Clara writes about different other types of fiber that work well with wool to give the blend characteristics that wool itself doesn’t have, like adding silk or mohair to add luster and drape.
There are plenty of patterns included in this book, divided by fiber characteristics, wool types, and what kind of item would best suit them. For example, using a softer, machine-washable yarn for a child’s cardigan or a mostly-merino yarn for a colorwork pillow.
All in all, this strikes me as a book mainly written from a love of wool. The patterns included are handy, but the main purpose is a thorough study of the fiber and the unique qualities it holds. Clara has written two other books in this series, The Knitter’s Book of Yarn and The Knitter’s Book of Socks.