Clara Parkes has a new book and you’re going to want to go get it right away. It is called Vanishing Fleece: Adventures in American Wool. It came out the first of October and I spent my evenings that week reading it. If you are a fiber person and you aren’t yet a fan of Clara Parkes, I recommend taking a look at her work. She is doing advocacy for the fiber most of us love the most, wool. She is asking the questions about the wool industry in the USA and worldwide that need to be asked and with this book, she is actively looking for answers about how to save this fiber we need so much. I heard her speak on this subject when she was the keynote at the 2016 YarnFest in Colorado when she was on her book tour for her last book, Knitlandia.
In Vanishing Fleece, she tells the story of what she calls the Great White Bale. She came by a 676-pound bale of the finest Saxon Merino wool and decided to use it to explore the yarn industry in the USA. She divided the bale into four parts and had them spun in four different ways at four different mills in the US. She also explores dyeing at a range of dye facilities.
The textile industry in this country and worldwide is in trouble, and it has been for awhile. This impacts those of us who use yarn for making our own stuff but it also affects us just as humans. PETA runs smear campaigns which spread lies about sheep. Maybe you’ve seen some of the ads—they talk about how the sheep like their coats left on and imply that we are hurting sheep when we shear them. The truth is that sheep are so domesticated that almost all breeds no longer roo or shed their coats without shearing. Sheep HAVE to be shorn or they will die. And we can use their wool. They never stop growing it after all. PETA seems to be implying that making clothing out of oil and plastic (which also comes from oil) is preferable to a material that is renewable, warm, and composts when it is no longer needed instead of filling the planet with micro plastics and contributing to global warming.* Sheep can be raised in ways that enrich the soil and remove carbon from the atmosphere and if you want to read more about that, pick up a book I reviewed earlier this year, Raw Material, which is also about sheep.
In her books and talks, Clara discusses the jeopardy the textile industry is in—all of it from farmer to yarn shop.
“If we want to be able to make wool socks or sweaters or suits or, yes, yarns, domestically and at prices that are even remotely affordable to the average consumer (and if we want jobs that will allow the average consumer to afford these goods), we need this infrastructure to remain healthy. Whether it’s shepherding or shearing or scouring or spinning or dyeing, I keep coming back to the fact that each of these links in our chain is in peril. These are not a museum to the past. Each deserves strengthening.”
Well I definitely want to keep my job which depends on the average consumer being able to buy tapestry yarn. But I am also interested in the beauty that is wool. How many of you love a beautiful skein of yarn more than just about anything? Those beautiful yarns are made by people who love the process and who profit very little by the making of them and the processes that allow them to exist are fading away. And lest I sound too depressing, there are success stories here. Small farms and mills and individuals who are fighting the good fight. And some of them are winning in their own ways and we buy their yarn.
At the end of the book, Clara says that what we need to do is use wool. We are makers but we are also consumers and we need to use the power of that to help this industry. Yes, the price of a skein of very nice yarn seems so expensive, but Clara makes a good point when she talks about Brown Sheep, a small mill in Nebraska just a few hours from where I live.
“There’s a common conception that wool, especially domestic wool, is too expensive for many people. I agree it can be prohibitive. But knitters, a worsted- weight skein of Brown Sheep Nature Spun yarn, made in Nebraska of American wool, at 310 yards per skein, will cost about $9. Less if you find it on sale. That puts the bill for a medium-sized women’s pullover at about $36. And for roughly the cost of five venti carmel macchiatos, you can get a pair of thick wool socks from Duckworth, which sources all its wool from a single Montana ranch. American wool needn’t always be out of reach.”
I will remind the tapestry weavers out there that Harrisville Designs is a mill similar in scale to Brown Sheep and their Highland, Shetland, and Koeher singles yarns makes a nice choice for tapestry for a most excellent price. In fact, all the yarns on my recommended tapestry yarn list are from small mills around the world who are fighting the good wool fight. Let’s support them.
This book is good. It grabbed me and I will admit that I had a few tears in my eyes when I finished it. You wouldn’t think yarn stories could make someone cry, but that Clara is good. The prose is excellent and you will never be bored when hearing her talk about the mills and dye studios she visited. It is a definite must-read.
Clara Parkes, Vanishing Fleece: Adventures in American Wool. A highly recommended read!
*I realize that everything we do including raising sheep can contribute to global warming, but the dependence on oil is a great big undeniable factor here.