Unraveling : what I learned about life while shearing sheep, dyeing wool, and making the world's ugliest sweater /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"Orenstein is such a breezy, funny writer, it's easy to forget she's an important thinker too."--People

In this lively, funny memoir, Peggy Orenstein sets out to make a sweater from scratch--shearing, spinning, dyeing wool--and in the process discovers how we find our deepest selves through craft. Orenstein spins a yarn that will appeal to everyone.

The COVID pandemic propelled many people to change their lives in ways large and small. Some adopted puppies. Others stress-baked. Peggy Orenstein, a lifelong knitter, went just a little further. To keep herself engaged and cope with a series of seismic shifts in family life, she set out to make a garment from the ground up: learning to shear sheep, spin and dye yarn, then knitting herself a sweater.

Orenstein hoped the project would help her process not just wool but her grief over the recent death of her mother and the decline of her dad, the impending departure of her college-bound daughter, and other thorny issues of aging as a woman in a culture that by turns ignores and disdains them. What she didn't expect was a journey into some of the major issues of our time: climate anxiety, racial justice, women's rights, the impact of technology, sustainability, and, ultimately, the meaning of home.

With her wry voice, sharp intelligence, and exuberant honesty, Orenstein shares her year-long journey as daughter, wife, mother, writer, and maker--and teaches us all something about creativity and connection.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Like many people in 2020, Orenstein (Boys & Sex) found comfort in crafting. During the wave of plenty of unexpected free time, she decided to fulfill a longtime aspiration: to create a sweater from scratch. Already a knitter, Orenstein wanted to take her hobby deeper and began the process by first shearing a sheep for wool. Fleece in hand, she learned the art of spinning it into yarn and experimented with dyeing before creating her own pattern for a sweater. Orenstein shares the successes and obstacles she experienced along the way. She also explored the history of textiles and garment manufacturing, the science of color, and the contemporary environmental and social impacts of the fashion industry, among other topics. The process helped her cope with her personal life, including the effects of the pandemic shutdown, such as being a mother to a college-bound daughter and facing the recent death of her mother. VERDICT Orenstein recounts her adventures in learning new skills with the openness and keen observations of a wise friend. This is a delight to read and will be of interest not only to crafters but also to anyone who's learned something new as an adult.--Anitra Gates

Publishers Weekly Review

Journalist Orenstein (Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity) recounts her yearlong endeavor to make a sweater from scratch in this insightful memoir. Inspired by her Eastern European ancestors and the "enforced pause" of the pandemic, Orenstein dove into the lengthy process: she sheared a sheep for the wool, cleaned the fleece, untangled the wool by hand, spun the fibers to form yarn, dyed it, sketched the sweater's design, and knitted her creation. Along the way she learned about the environmental impact of fast fashion (5,787 pounds of textiles are either dumped or burned every second) and bonded with her 94-year-old father, with whom she could only see in video chats because his independent living facility was locked down in quarantine. Orenstein poignantly reveals what she's learned from the craft ("Decades of knitting have taught me that fixing mistakes is part of the process") and humorously describes her hands-on experiences (on attempting to use an electric clipper on a ewe: "She is wriggling like a greased-up toddler"). This snapshot of creative self-discovery will enlighten readers. Agent: Suzanne Gluck, WME. (Jan.)

Booklist Review

A lifelong knitter, Orenstein embraced her craft during the COVID-19 pandemic. But she took it up a notch, as her suddenly empty calendar allowed her to fulfill her dream of making a sweater from scratch: shearing the sheep, processing the fleece, spinning and dyeing the yarn, and creating her own design. She begins her year-long project with a sheep-shearing lesson that is both hilarious and scary. (Who knew? The pros make it look so easy.) At each step of the way, she delves into history, weaving in fascinating details that reveal how sheep, wool, and the clothing industry have influenced civilization, right down to social issues reflected in events like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and the pink pussyhats of the 2017 Women's March. This is a new direction for an author known for her work on gender issues and teens (Don't Call Me Princess, 2018; Boys and Sex, 2020). Dedicated crafters will particularly enjoy this pandemic-times memoir, but the appeal goes far beyond. The sweater may be ugly, but the journey is beautiful.

Kirkus Book Review

Looking at the world through knitting. Journalist Orenstein, whose previous subjects include boys, girls, and sex, offers a wry, candid memoir of the year 2020, when the pandemic lockdown, her father's deepening dementia, her daughter's upcoming departure for college, and the threat of wildfires to her California home urged her to think hard about her life. At 58, aging, too, was on her mind when she decided to plunge into a new, challenging project: learning to shear a sheep, process the fleece, and knit a sweater. Shearing required courage and brawn, she quickly learned, and the mound of wool she managed to glean was only the beginning of a long process that involved cleaning (fleece was rife with manure, insects, and soil), carding, spinning, and dyeing (making her own dye from leaves and flowers). Spinning involved considerable trial and error, but when she mastered it--"pinching, pulling, smoothing back"--she felt "suffused with well-being, with a profound sense of peace, not dissimilar to the feeling of being lost in writing." Besides recounting the messy process of creating yarn, Orenstein offers a colorful history of fiber production, the invention and evolution of spinning mechanisms, and even the prevalence of spinning in folk and fairy tales. She was surprised by her discoveries "about how clothing has shaped civilization, class, culture, power," noting many instances when knitters (those pussy hats!) practiced "craftivism." She also discovered the environmental impact of clothing production. As she notes, dyeing and finishing are "responsible for a fifth of the world's industrial water pollution," and discarded "fast clothing" piles up in landfills. Although at times it felt overwhelming "to parse every purchase, to ensure it supports sustainability and fair working conditions," the author emerged from her project with a commitment to thinking more consciously about consumption--as well as with new insight into her fears, grief, and apprehension about the future. A charming memoir of a quietly transformative year. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.