The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook

More Than 200 Fibers, from Animal to Spun Yarn

Contributors

By Carol Ekarius

By Deborah Robson

Formats and Prices

Price

$35.00

Price

$44.00 CAD

Format

Format:

  1. Hardcover $35.00 $44.00 CAD
  2. ebook $16.99 $21.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around June 1, 2011. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

This one-of-a-kind encyclopedia shines a spotlight on more than 200 animals and their wondrous fleece. Profiling a worldwide array of fiber-producers that includes northern Africa’s dromedary camel, the Navajo churro, and the Tasmanian merino, Carol Ekarius and Deborah Robson include photographs of each animal’s fleece at every stage of the handcrafting process, from raw to cleaned, spun, and woven. The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook is an artist’s handbook, travel guide, and spinning enthusiast’s ultimate reference source all in one. 

Genre:

  • "Every once in a while there is a book that lives up to it’s hype. Only once in a blue moon are we lucky enough to get a book that surpasses all the stories that have led up to it. The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook is a blue moon book. The spinning world has been buzzing about this book for years, and Deb Robson has been kind enough to share writing the process on her blog, but that still didn’t prepare me for the completeness of the book.

    The sheer complexity of the subject made clear, useful and not just interesting, but fascinating. More than 200 animal fibers and breeds laid out and dissected by an animal expert and a spinning expert jump off of the page in concise prose that speaks to the history of the breed; fleece, fiber and lock characteristics; using the fiber in dyeing, spinning, knitting and weaving. The photography is crisp enough to count crimps and shows fiber as washed and unwashed; prepped and spun, and sometimes knit or woven. The authors manage to do all of this using 2-4 pages per breed.

    Spinners (and knitters) this is the book you’ve been asking for: more photos and breeds than In Sheep’s Clothing and more sheepy and animal goodness than The Knitter's Book of Wool. A labor of sheepy love and a stellar book."
    Library Journal
  • This is an excellent resource for fiber artists curious about different types of animal fibers and how best to use them.
    Vogue Knitting
  • Two experts, one a farmer and livestock guru, the other a fiber magazine editor, join brains to produce this resource for yarn crafters. Far from drab and dreary, Robson and Ekarius enliven the pictures and descriptions of about 200 breeds of sheep, inserting critical information and fun facts. Well written and researched, a reference for all ages.
    Starred review
    Craftzine
  • Not only is this a library essential for yarn users who take their wool, alpaca, llama, cashmere and yak seriously; it’s also an important text for those involved in the husbandry of our four-legged fiber friends. If we want to preserve our “heirloom” fibers, we need to know their names.
    Interweave Knits
  • A reference you'll return to again and again as you grow as a fiber artist.
  • A comprehensive manual for the wool aficionado. Packed with photos and detailed fiber properties, it covers every breed of sheep you are likely to encounter and then some.

On Sale
Jun 1, 2011
Page Count
448 pages
Publisher
Storey
ISBN-13
9781603427111

Carol Ekarius

Carol Ekarius

About the Author

Carol Ekarius is the coauthor of The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook, The Field Guide to Fleece, and Storey’s Guide to Raising Sheep, and the author of several books including Small-Scale Livestock Farming, Storey’s Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds, and Storey’s Illustrated Breed Guide to Sheep, Goats, Cattle, and Pigs. She lives in the mountains of Colorado.
 

Learn more about this author