Book Review: In Sheep’s Clothing

Sheep’s Clothing: A Handspinner’s Guide to Wool by Jane Fournier and Nola Fournier is not a new book – it was published in 1995 – but I wanted to take some time to review it because (1) it’s a great book and (2) it’s relatively new to my personal library.

Although the title suggest that the book is mostly for spinners, I think that anyone who is interested in any of the fiber arts and works with wool would find this book helpful. The book starts with a chapter that discusses wool properties in general, including the structure of wool and its characteristics (warmth, water absorbency, flame resistance, etc.). The subsequent chapters go into more detail about broad classifications of wool – fine wools, longwools and crossbred wools, down-type wools, and ‘other wools’. Each of these chapters contains detailed information, not only abut the general breed category, but also about the specific characteristics of the wool produced by the specific breeds. The discussions of the specific breeds are also accompanied with excellent photos of some locks from that breed’s fleece which clearly show the crimp and staple length of the wool.

For example, in the ‘Corriedale’ section of the ‘Fine Wool’ chapter, the book talks about how the Corriedale sheep came to be (British longwool rams and Merino ewes were bred, and the resulting animals were interbred), how Corriedale fleece is generally used, describes it as being “fine, reasonably soft, and well crimped”, and goes on to list the specifics about the fleece weight, fiber diameter, and staple length of the typical Corriedale sheep. Each of the chapters that discuss the broad categories of sheep wool also has a quick reference chart that compares the wool of each specific breed in the category for softness, elasticity and loft, staple length, luster, and felting properties. These charts alone are worth the price of the book to anyone that is thinking of buying the fiber of a sheep breed they’ve never worked with before.

The book concludes with a few chapters that would be of particular interest to spinners:

• Selecting, Sorting and Storing Fleece
• Blending Wool
• Terms and Techniques – talks about how to card wool and how to comb wool, with enough detail to get you started in either technique, along with the basics of spinning, plying and finishing your yarn

So, if you are interested in the fiber arts and want to learn how to better use wool in your projects, you should think about adding In Sheep’s Clothing: A Handspinner’s Guide to Wool to your personal library.