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.