The Spinner's Book of Fleece: A Breed-by-Breed Guide to Choosing and Spinning the Perfect Fiber for Every Purpose

I hadn’t heard of Beth Smith when I’d first seen the book, and I chose not to buy it, but her name came up among members of my guild, so I gave in and got the book. My, oh, my! I've just read the first three chapters of the book and I LOVE IT! Even with all the other good spinning books I have on my shelves, this is a good one.Of course, one of the reasons I love it is because she approaches spinning the same way I do—she likes to start with a fleece rather than top or roving, and she wants to spin a consistent yarn. The part of the book that I've read so far is all about how to choose a fleece, process it, and how to spin and ply the wool, any wool. The rest of the book is a breed study.Truthfully, I wouldn't have bought this book if her name hadn’t come up, but I was curious to find out who she was and so I looked at the preview of the book on Amazon. I have the Fournier's book, Anne Field's books, Clara Parke's book, the Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook, and others, but this one is a keeper. It’s good enough that once I finish reading it, I'll read it again and make notes.She doesn't have tons of new information for me particularly, but she puts things that I know into words, and then organizes those words well. The whole book, especially the pictures, is gorgeous. It has marvelous pin-up pictures of sheep, wonderful close-up pictures of locks and spun yarn. It’s a beautiful book. It’s published by Storey, so it’s good quality, well edited, well put together. It's money well spent. It's a great book for someone who knows how to spin, but wants to know more.Another reason I'm in love with it: last year at a fiber festival I bought four ounces of lots of different breeds. I've been wanting to do an in-depth breed study for some time now, and this is her specialty. The book focuses on: Merino, Cormo, Polypay, Corriedale, Wensleydale, Romney, Lincoln, BFL, Suffolk, Southdown, Dorset Horn, Poll Dorset, Black Welsh Mountain, Karakul, Scottish Blackface, Shetland, Icelandic, California Red, Jacob, and Tunis.Heck, yeah, I recommend it.

At first glance, I saw The Spinner's Book of Fleece as just another reference book, something I neither needed nor wanted, with regard to its particular topic of consideration. However, I have since found that it is also an engaging, well-written book, and organized, interesting and readable book. I have other excellent references on this subject, and there's a wealth of information on the internet, but i boughtThe Spinner's Book of Fleece anyway. I'm retired and on a very limited budget. Another reference book about sheep breeds, spinning qualities of different fleeces, how to clean, prepare, or anything else to do with choosing or using fleece would at the very least, be superfluous to my needs.So, under those circumstances, you may ask why did I purchase this particular book? The answer is simple: Its a great book and I enjoy reading it. I'm interested in the subject, of course, but as I said, I already have an abundance of reference material to support pretty much any inquiry I might have on this subject. I started looking at this book at a friend's house, and she encouraged me to take it home and check out what the author has to say about something we'd been discussing. So I borrowed the book, and read the passage, which gave rise to my inquiry about another relevant topic, and I was hooked. I really wanted this book, whether I needed it or not. And I don't regret spending the money, even though it meant putting off getting something else that I have a more immediate need for..

I am so pleased with this book. I read many rave reviews, and they are all well-founded! More than just a study in breed-specific spinning, this book thoroughly covers everything you need to know about working with fleeces of any type. In particular, I found the discussion of processing tools incredibly useful - sure, you might not know what style of handcards you prefer until you use a few, but what should you be looking for in the first place? I haven't seen this discussed elsewhere.This is a heavy, expensive-feeling book. The layouts are clear, photographs are well-lit, perfectly focused, and attractively styled. Each breed's fleece is discussed along with many different spinning samples, all from a single fleece of that breed, with detailed notes on exactly how each sample was spun (prep, drafting method, wheel configuration, finishing, etc). The samples illustrate directly how that fleece behaves when handled in these different ways. It is wonderful to see clear examples to demonstrate how these differences pan out. It is one thing to offer advice, such as "always spin to the spin count of the fleece", but it's another thing to see demonstrations of what happens when you do or don't to illustrate the point. There is a wealth of knowledge in this book and I highly recommend it to any spinner. Whether you want to prep your own fleece or not, the spinning instruction would be useful for any handspinner.

I love this book! Not only do you learn about different kinds of wool, you also learn about scouring, preparing and spinning in detail. I learned so much just flipping through it. It's a comprehensive sourcebook and one that every spinner who buys fleeces should have.

The Spinner's Guide to Fleece is pack with great information. I wish I had this book when I was first starting out on my fiber journey; it would have made things so much easier.

As a novice spinner who has a grasp of the basics this book has answered a myriad of questions and given me the tools to advance my spinning from the floundering rudimentary to the realm of selecting fleece or prepared fiber and spinning what I want in a finished yarn. It takes you beyond how to spin to understanding how selection of fleece or fiber and the way in which you spin it can give you the kind of yarn you want to create. No stone is left unturned in the process. It's a gold mine of information I've not found anywhere else. Anyone who is serious about spinning to achieve the results they want should have this book. It fills a huge gap in the spinning literature available and no one who is serious about spinning should be without it.

I think if you’re sort of learning on your own, and you don’t have access to a breed study workshop and you don’t know anyone else that spins: This book is your new friend. I also think experienced spinners will be delighted with having all this detail in one reference. The production quality is very high and the photography is lovely.Beth Smith breaks down sheep fleece (no other animals included) into four main types; and introduces distinct breeds which fit into those types. For each she offers tips on: • Choosing the source. purchasing and breed selection. • Best scouring, preparation, Spinning techniques, finishing for each type. • Tracking and measuring results of your experiments, twist, WPI, recording what you did so you learn! • Best applications for these choices of source + preparation + finishing.There’s so much included here that I haven’t seen covered much elsewhere and not much online either (unless you mine the rich ore of Ravelry). Did you know you could reconstitute the crimp in a commercially prepared fibre which has been compressed for so long? Had you considered the degrees of fulling yarns when setting twist, why you would? I’ve seen instruction on how to “thwack” the yarn, but hadn’t considered the degrees to which you might do this and to what effect. For this reason, I think also experienced spinners will find something surprising in this book.It’s really the perfect companion to put in practice the info in the Fleece and Fibre Sourcebook, and help you prepare for using your spindle (Respect the Spindle) (or wheel) and making gorgeous yarns (Spinners Book of Yarn Designs).Beth Smith’s main message: PLAY!My biggest take away is what Beth Smith refers to as “sampling”, which what the book is made of. Lovely, inspiring, intriguing samples. The sample photos show lots of detail. For example a tag might say “Flicked/worsted spun from cut end/ 2 ply”.Beth Smith makes me any to get organised and undertake my personal breed study. She advises experimenting and keeping records, with practical advice on storage, and inspiration of experiments to try.She includes spinning advice for knitting, types of stitches which work best with a given yarn. She also makes distinctions of finishing yarns for knitting or weaving. There’s nothing specific on twist and crochet, which I’ve seen covered in other sources. But the weaving detail is very interesting.Also included:Tips on Plying for a specific effect with a given fleece typeBreed selection for a specific purposeChoosing fleece; fleece faultsSpinners Book of Fleece is chock full of inspiration. I’ve just booked my summer “staycation” at home and not sorry I can’t travel because I’ll be elbow deep in fleece :) Thank you Beth for this guidebook, it’s so full of wooly love and care.

I had high hopes for this book - as I love the Field Guide to Fleece (Deborah Robson had a hand in both books) but unfortunately it’s not in the same league. The information is scanty, and some of it in my opinion just wrong. If I could work out how to request a refund for a digital product I would. Don’t bother with this book if you want information on how to get the best from your fleeces, and which fleeces are best for which project, just go straight to the Field Guide to Fleece.

I read Heather's review (5/8/14) and that made me decide to buy this book. I have the other books she mentioned and am very pleased with them.This book is brilliant. Just the sort of book I like as it encourages you to have a go and not get hung up if your yarn isn't perfect. It is full of good advice and practical in a straightforward way. It's easy to read and use.I will be suggesting it to my local Guild as a book to buy for the library.

The author had a great idea when she grouped types of fleece together as it means you get to understand characteristics of that group rather than looking up each individual type of fleece. The book itself is nicely bound and printed, it has a good solid feel to it.This book is well written and has lots of useful photos and extra information - I'd recommend it!

The illustrations are clear and th information very detailed. I wanted this book to learn more about fleece of sheep in th uk, which I will use for spinning.