I knew I was going to like this book – Adventures in Yarn Farming by Barbara Parry – from my first glance at the contents list. Someone who can come up with Good Fibrations, Lamb-pedes ad Hay-lelujah is my kind of author – clearly imaginative and with a fine sense of humour. And, as a sheep, alpaca and llama owner myself, the subject matter of these cleverly named chapters fascinated me.
The author Barbara Parry tells us about four seasons on her New England farm. She also tells us how she tends to take “an awfully long and complicated way around most things”, but most definitely not with her writing. The book is succinctly written, full of absorbing detail about the life of a small-scale sheep farmer, and Barbara Parry outlines why she embraces this fascinating but formidable lifestyle. And there’s plenty of humour, as I expected. You pick up lots of interesting facts about the various different breeds of sheep, how and why they differ with regards to their wool type and yield, and the author explains how she made her own choices. Being a llama farmer, I was delighted to see that she added llamas (one of whom shares my daughter’s name!) to her menagerie to act as bodyguards, a role these camelids perform brilliant as I know from experience.
The author shares with us how she processes the fibre, from shearing to spinning; it’s a veritable goldmine of information. There’s hands-on advice, workable tips and hints, not just about yarn processing, using and storing dyes, but also about lambing, stock health maintenance and running a farm. Throughout there are fabulous photos. There are even knitting patterns too and a glossary. This is such a well planned and executed book but most of all it’s so readable. Barbara has a wonderful, welcoming conversational style.
Any yarn lover will surely love this book.
The book is published by Roost Books. Find all the details here.