I have a small collection of children’s books about fiber arts and I’m always looking for more to add to it. Just after Christmas, I saw The Story of The Unique Sheep
For some reason, Amazon says the print edition is temporarily out of stock. The links below are to the Kindle edition, which is available for immediate download.
The Unique Sheep is an actual hand-dyed yarn company. The Story of the Unique Sheep is written by Laura, who hand dyes the yarn, and her mother-in-law, Dianne. Dianne also illustrated the book with lovely watercolor pictures. The events of the book are inspired by Laura and Chris Lough’s Square Peg Farm. The Lough’s have three Shetland sheep. Elizabeth, the only white sheep, is bored by her white color and decides to liven herself up. In the end, she’s all the colors of the farm. As the story unfolds, we learn about life on the farm, including the food they grow and the other animals that live there. We also see the process of shearing the sheep and turning the raw wool into hand-spun, hand-dyed yarn. Unusual words related to sheep and yarn, including shear, drum carder, and predator, are underlined in the text of the book and a glossary in the back defines each one. The back of the book contains three beginner patterns — a scarf, hat, and fingerless mitts — in the variegated colors of the farm.
The story is charming and the illustrations are beautiful. What’s not to love? I’m glad to have The Story of the Unique Sheep in my collection!