This Wovember, we highly recommend the following books:
1) The Woolpack by Cynthia Harnett is a wonderful piece of historic fiction. Although aimed principally at younger readers, this adventure story is well-researched and really brings the history of the wool trade in the Cotswolds alive through vivid and careful description. A really nice bedtime story for Wovember!
2) Sheep: The Remarkable Story of the Humble Animal That Built the Modern World by Alan Butler gives a good general overview of the central – and often overlooked – role that sheep have played in shaping the history of the world.
3) Beautiful Sheep: Portraits of Champion Breeds by Kathryn Dun really celebrates all the different breeds of sheep in existence, allowing us to see these wonderful animals at their finest.
4) Pure Wool: A Knitter’s Guide to Using Single-breed Yarns by Sue Blacker is full of inspiration re: how to use different types of wool to best advantage for knitting projects. As well as including knitting patterns for a wide-variety of breed-specific yarns, the book features an empowering set of tables at the back, which will help any hand-knitter to select the yarn that is best for their project from the wonderful selection of different types of wool available to knit with today.
5) The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook by Deborah Robson and Carol Ekarius is the most useful reference book for understanding wool available to today’s knitters and spinners! The book discusses the history of many different sheep breeds and their wool, as well as the fibres produced by other animals such as rabbits, bison and llamas! A very thorough exploration of every kind of fleece and fibre you can imagine is presented within the book, as well as information on how preparing and spinning different fibre types will result in different kinds of yarns.
6) Respect the Spindle: Spin Infinite Yarns with One Amazing Tool by Abby Franquemont is the book that will give you the necessary courage and information to start making your own yarn from wool. Practical, to the point, encouraging and thorough, this book will tell you everything you need to start spinning your own 100% WOOL yarns.
Blog-wise, there’s PLENTY to read right now, especially with all the wonderful news stories arising from WOOL WEEK!
We suggest searching for “WOOL WEEK” on line to read about all sorts of wonderful events. If you have read something about wool this week which you would like to share with other WOVEMBER readers, please leave a link in the comments, and do tell us about any other books which you think should be added to the reading list above!