I doubt that there is much that New Zealanders Nola and Jane Fournier don't know about sheep and fleeces and they have done a great job in passing on their collective knowledge in this volume.

This book introduces the public to the wide range of fleeces now available to handspinners and gives us an idea of breed fleece characteristics and how we might best utilize them. There are numerous photos of locks of fleece (rather than pictures of sheep) so that we get a good idea about what kind of fiber each breed produces. Wool structure is described and explanations about how fineness of wool is described in various countries. From there, the book goes on to describe yarn types and the three basic wool classifications - fine wools, longwools and down wools.

Nola and Jane have advice on how to choose a good fleece, skirting, washing, hand carding and other problems you may encounter on your journey to get and process the right fleece for the particular project you have in mind. They even include basic spinning instructions and directions for Navajo-plying. The whole book is wrapped up with a series of exercises to help keep you from getting those troubling repetitive motion injuries caused by being too engrossed in fiber to stretch and unwind.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about wool and how to process fleece. As with everything we do, the devil is in the details. Here is the book to help you work through those details.

Incredibly thorough book with information on wool breeds and spinning that you won't find anywhere else. ( )

Indispensible for handspinners shopping for fleece. The Fourniers describe each breed in detail, including photgraphs of individual locks and properties of the wool relevant to handspinners. Breed descriptions often focus on the sheep from the point of view of the producer (who likely is also interested in meat production), but this book is all about the wool. Don't be caught at the next festival without a copy! ( )