Book Review - The Wonder of Wool

 Why, yes, I forgot I had this corner of the internet. 

I recently had a birthday, and with that came some unexpected money. So I splurged on some books. 

To help keep things organized in my own head, and to help give others a peek on different books, I figured I'd write a review. 

Book Cover: The Wonder of Wool

The basics: 
The Wonder of Wool: A Knitter's Guide to Pure Breed Sheep (Hardcover)
by Justine Lee and Jess Morency

Published: August 19, 2025 by David & Charles
ISBN: 9781446315453 (ISBN10: 1446315452) 


I totally judged this book by it's cover. The cover is a black and white photograph of a sheep. It's gorgeous, as are the other photographs of sheep (sheeps) inside. 

At the start, it's a quick overview of a few things, and off we go. 

Now, I am probably not the intended target for this book. I will admit to being more of a spinner than a knitter now a days, and this book does say on the cover "A Knitter's Guide". For a book that's 144 pages, I was hoping for more pages devoted to sheep breeds and didn't expect more than half the book to be knitting patterns. The patterns look gorgeous, and I like that they used all natural colors for the different projects. That said, if you have a larger chest, like I do, know that a 50" chest is the upper limit. Each pattern is preceded by one of those gorgeous black and white photos of a sheep in the breed that's being highlighted. 

The coverage of the sheep breeds are divided up Primitive, Longwool, and Short Wool/Down, with a decent number in each category. There's a brief overview of the breed, a drawing of the breed, some stats about the wool, and some tips for how to best use the wool for spinners and knitters. There's also a picture of a knitted swatch. 

An example, shamelessly stolen from The Woolly Thistle:

Now, I know some people might prefer a photo instead of a sketch/drawing, but the nice thing about the drawing is that you can make it the more average looking sheep from that breed. It gives you an idea instead of a real world example. I actually like it, especially with the gorgeous (yes, I keep using that word) photographs later in the book. 

The layout is very clean and readable. One thing I would have loved, but I've only seen it in one book on sheep, is how feltable all the different breeds are. They do mention if the fleece of a breed is particularly feltable or felt resistant, but that's the exception. 

In the last few pages, they do give people an idea of where to get the (mostly) yarn from the different breeds, but I worry about how quickly that might be out of date. 

One thing I was dismay to not find was a bibliography or work cited or list of references. There are a few books on the final page that are listed under the "For Further Reading" list, but it makes me wonder where they got their information from. I'm not even talking AI or plagiarism, but a list of references is rather like showing your work in math in that it lets the rest of us see how you got your answers. It also gives those of us who are massive nerds places to look for more in-depth read. 

This will probably sit on my shelf for a quick reference, but I have others that go more in-depth and have more breeds. However, the other books do not have this beautiful cover or photos inside. 

As a sheep nerd and spinner, I'd give it a 3 out of 5. If you can spare the money, sure, get it for the pretties and maybe the patterns. But there are better books, but this one is more up to date on staple length and fleece weights. 

Presentation for Maidens

 https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Qo2Uk6YycL2UebKqzV7Y1FTmN8-Kl0Vx0zibXdMDUE4/edit?usp=sharing

 

 

Not dead yet!

We've been busy the last year, and didn't update this as often as we'd like.

So, this year, we'll be getting back to updating this with short articles about different breeds. Right now, we're washing some Clun Forest, and it's a lovely fiber that more people should know about. Look back for an update on 1/23.

We're also going to be doing more dye experiments, as well as posting some sheepy thoughts and wool gatherings.

We're still up to our ears in unwashed wool, several hundred pounds of it! All different breeds, and from all over the world.

Right now, we have some Cheviot on the wheel, some Clun Forest in the tub, and some Jacob drying. And two cats that like making a slash in the tub water.

Cheers!

What we've been up to

As of late, I've been up to my ears in unwashed wool.

I don't think of that as a problem, but Mr. WoolWeed isn't fond of it.

Right now, I have close to 100 lbs of wool that I'm in the process of washing, and of that a wide variety of breeds - everything from British Milk Sheep to Zwartble.

While I wash and process, I'll try to get back to posting about the different breeds.

Manx L.

Egads! Where did the month go?!

The long promised post about another of our favorite breeds - the Manx Loaghtan.

Another primitive breed, often with four horns (though two horns are not uncommon, six horned animals are), they are a breed that is worth getting to know better. The fleece has a wonderful "squooshy" quality to it (dense, but fluffy). The fleece is often a wonderful, warm brown (often described as chocolate), with tips that bleach out to a cream.

Some of the things I find fascinating about the Manx breed is that they are a hardy breed, and while the are known for being from the Isle of Man, it wasn't until recently that they were a source of pride for the Isle. They were almost extinct until the middle of the 20th century. One gentleman, George Steriopulos, saw some being sold at a market for "next to nothing". Steriopulos realized that the Manx were a primitive breed that didn't " conform to modern marketing standards."

Manx is best spun with a short draw/draft. It's a lovely fiber, but might be frustrating for a beginner. However, it's well worth seeking out once you're comfortable with a shorter fiber.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/isleofman/hi/people_and_places/nature/newsid_8333000/8333801.stm

Perendale with lily of the valley

So, it's that time of year when everything is coming up. I've been wanting to dye with lily of the valley for a while, ever since I had read about it and how you can get a green from it.

Doing research, many of the books/websites and more suggested a ratio of 2:1 of plant material to wool. I would definitely up it to 3:1 or even 4:1.

I started with:

5.4 ounces of lily of the valley (leaves and flower buds)

2.6 ounces of Perendale fleece (washed) mordanting in .5T alum and .5t CoT.

Leaves were harvested at night and put into a 6 ounce crock pot. Wool was soaked and entered into the dye bath several hours later. (It took a long time to extract any sort of dye color.)

Added about two more ounces of leaves, and some color could eventually be seen, left the leaves in, and let it soak on low for a while, and then turned off and let cool.

After several days of sitting in the crock pot, I reheated the dye bath with the wool in it. It seems to have given a pale, apple green. Left some leaves in there, added about 11 ounces of new leaves and turned on high to try to extract more color. Have 4.1 ounces of wool mordanting in  alum/CoT. Not sure if all of it will go to the lily of the valley bath, but most will.

It is definitely a pale, pale color, more like a tint. Worth trying again, and experimenting with.

One of the books talked about adding Glauber's salts and Tartaric acid to the dye bath. That's something to look into for next time. 

Logwood

I had an ounce of logwood powder sitting around for some time, and decided it was high time to do something with it. Friday night (1/1/2016), I mixed the logwood powder with some water, and then decided that more water would be better. I moved it to a larger mason jar, and added just boiling water, some vinegar, and it's been sitting ever since. Tonight, I hope to remember to start mordanting some wool and see how the logwood dyes up.

I've been informed by Ian the Green (or Grene)'s wife that I will look like I have blood on my hands. I'm rather excited about that. For some reason, dyEing is more fun when it's messy and leaves your hands different colors than they started.

Which reminds me that I need to move the blocks of ice that are the walnut extracts I have outside so they can thaw and I can use them. If I do it tomorrow, I might have enough to bring to a demo on Wednesday.