Clara Parkes left a career in the high-tech industry to pursue her passion for knitting. She lives on the coast of Maine in a farmhouse filled with yarn, where she is the publisher of KnittersReview.com and a contributor to Interweave Knits.
Provides insight into a vast selection of yarns, giving you the inside stories behind some of the most common fibre types, preparations, spins and ply combinations used by large-scale manufacturers and importers, medium-sized companies, boutique dye shops, community spinneries and old-fashioned sheep farms.
Suitable for knitters who want to understand the ins and outs of sock knitting 'from the yarn up' and create a perfect pair of socks every time, this title shows knitters how to create the perfect pair of socks, with a collection of 20 patterns.
A fast-paced account of the year Parkes spent transforming a 676-pound bale of fleece into saleable yarn, and the people and vanishing industry she discovered along the way.
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.
"Renowned knitter and author Clara Parkes uses the metaphor of knitting to tell her own story via twenty-two captivating, poignant, and laugh-out-loud funny essays."--Front jacket flap.
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.
NYT bestselling author Clara Parkes returns, with a host of star knitters and hilarious essays on what to do with your knitting stash.
New York Times bestselling author Clara Parkes returns with a host of star knitters and brilliant knitting-stash stories and advice