Clara Parkes

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, Parkes 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.

A new, addictive-to-read collection of essays and stories celebrating yarn—specifically, the knitter’s reputation for acquiring it in large quantities and storing it away in what’s lovingly referred to as a “stash.” The pieces in this collection span from comical to earnest, lighthearted to deeply philosophical, in a celebration of the how, why, when, and what of stashes each knitter has accumulated over the years. We’ll hear from bestselling authors, designers, yarn-store owners, essayists, sheep farmers, mill owners, and the people behind the world’s largest collective online stash, Ravelry.com.

A New York Times Bestseller Knitting aficionado and notable artisan Clara Parkes delves into her storied travels with this inspiring and witty memoir on a creative life enriched by her adventures around the world. Building on the success of The Yarn Whisperer, Parkes’s rich personal essays invite readers and devoted crafters on excursions to be savored, from a guide who quickly comes to feel like a trusted confidante. In Knitlandia, she takes readers along on 17 of her most memorable journeys across the globe over the last 15 years, with stories spanning from the fjords of Iceland to a cozy yarn shop in Paris’s 13th arrondissement. Also known for her PBS television appearances and hugely popular line of small-batch handcrafted yarns, Parkes weaves her personal blend of wisdom and humor into this eloquently down-to-earth guide that is part personal travel narrative and part cultural history, touching the heart of what it means to live creatively. Join Parkes as she ventures to locales both foreign and familiar in chapters like: Chasing a Legend in TaosGlass, Grass, and the Power of Place: Tacoma, WashingtonA Thing for Socks and a Very Big Plan: Portland, OregonAutumn on the Hudson: The New York Sheep & Wool FestivalCashmere Dreams and British Breeds: A Last-Minute Visit to Edinburgh, Scotland Fans of travel writing, as well as knitters, crocheters, designers, and fiber artists alike, will enjoy the masterful narrative in these intimate tales from a life well crafted. Whether you’ve committed to exploring your own wanderlust or are an armchair traveler curled up in your coziest slippers, Knitlandia is sure to inspire laughter, tears, and maybe some travel plans of your own.

Create your dream yarn! Discover the pleasures of designing and building custom-made yarn by spinning it yourself, choosing everything from color to feel and gauge. Jillian Moreno leads you through every step of yarn construction, with detailed instructions and step-by-step photos showing you how to select the fiber you want (wool, cotton, silk, synthetic), establish a foundation, and spin a beautiful yarn with the structure, texture, and color pattern that you want. In addition to teaching you the techniques you need for success, Moreno also offers 12 delicious original patterns from prominent designers, each one showcasing hand-spun yarns.

In The Yarn Whisperer: My Unexpected Life in Knitting, Clara Parkes shares 22 captivating, poignant and laugh-out-loud funny stories about the role yarn and knitting play in her life. In the process, she hits upon the universal truths that drive knitters as well as the ways in which knitting can be looked at as a metaphor for so many other things. Within the foreword, she explains: "In Victorian times, people often spoke through flowers. They called it floriography. A simple acacia signified secret love, an oxeye daisy called for patience, and the pear blossom spoke of lasting friendship. But, as in Agatha Christie's Miss Marple mysteries, some were harbingers of danger, dishonesty, even death. Women 'corresponded' through flowers, able to communicate far deeper meaning through them than they could put into words. What if it turns out we do the same thing with our own knitting, creating swatches and garments that, when deciphered, tell stories of their own? Stockinette, ribbing, cables, even the humble yarn over can instantly evoke places, times, people, conversations, all those poignant moments that we've tucked away in our memory banks. Over time, those stitches form a map of our lives." And with that introduction, Parkes goes on to regale us with stories of her childhood and adulthood—of family, friends, adventure, exploration, privacy, disappointment, love and celebration--all tied together with a strand of yarn, of course.