:: Spring 2006 
Review
In Sheep’s Clothing: A Handspinner’s Guide to Wool
In Sheep’s Clothing: A Handspinner’s Guide to Wool, by Nolan Fournier and Jane Fournier, is an excellent compendium of fibre descriptions with black and white photos of various wools handspinners will encounter. The authors helpfully provide a table of contents, a glossary of terms, a bibliography, and a cross-referenced index. What a pleasure to be able to find a desired topic with ease!
CyberFibres recommends In Sheep’s Clothing additionally for its thorough coverage of the carding process, particularly drum carding. The three stages of 1) feeding fibre into the carder, 2) using a doffer to separate the carded fibres on the drum, and 3) pulling the carded fibres off the drum are nicely illustrated beside the text. Nola and Jane Fournier, mother and daughter authors, share two important cardinal rules of drum carding with readers. The first is that, while a drum carder can improve the looks of an inferior fleece, it can never produce a better fibre than the fibre that is fed into it. The second point is that fibre from an unwashed fleece will deposit grease on the drum. The authors recommend using separate carding cloths (the rectangle of cloth with metal teeth that is wrapped around the drum) for washed and unwashed fleeces, or using a separate drum carder for each.
In Sheep’s Clothing: A Handspinner’s Guide to Wool is a book to which you will refer again and again.