Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World’s Ugliest Sweater
Written by Peggy Orenstein
Narrated by Peggy Orenstein
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
“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.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
Unraveling is a memoir that explores Peggy Orenstein's journey into the world of knitting as a way to cope with the pandemic and other personal struggles. Through her exploration of the cultural history of wool dying, carding, and spinning, she provides readers with a deeper understanding of the true meaning of creativity and the importance of pursuing hobbies. This book is a perfect gift for anyone looking for inspiration and insight into the power of DIY projects.
Peggy Orenstein
Peggy Orenstein is the New York Times bestselling author of Boys & Sex, Don’t Call Me Princess, Girls & Sex, Cinderella Ate My Daughter, Waiting for Daisy, Flux, and Schoolgirls. A frequent contributor to the New York Times, she has written for the Washington Post, The Atlantic, Afar, The New Yorker, and other publications, and has contributed commentary to NPR’s All Things Considered and PBS NewsHour. She lives in Northern California.
More audiobooks from Peggy Orenstein
Cinderella Ate My Daughter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Don't Call Me Princess: Essays on Girls, Women, Sex, and Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Unraveling
Related audiobooks
I'm Wearing Tunics Now: On Growing Older, Better, and a Hell of a Lot Louder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You're Leaving When?: Adventures in Downward Mobility Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Life in Stitches: Knitting My Way Through Love, Loss, and Laughter - Tenth Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Vanishing Fleece: Adventures in American Wool Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Flock: Rare Wool, Wild Isles and One Woman’s Journey to Save Scotland’s Original Sheep Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lives of the Wives: Five Literary Marriages Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Life of One's Own: Nine Women Writers Begin Again Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What Looks Like Bravery: An Epic Journey Through Loss to Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater: Essays on Crafting Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All The Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Under the Henfluence: Inside the World of Backyard Chickens and the People Who Love Them Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Living Remedy: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trackers: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fibershed: Growing a Movement of Farmers, Fashion Activists, and Makers for a New Textile Economy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Künstlers in Paradise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In the Country of Women: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Duchess Goldblatt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Story of Art Without Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Does Justice Look Like?: The Struggle for Liberation in Dakota Homeland Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThreads of Life: A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This Other Eden Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Personal Memoirs For You
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Counting the Cost Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Woman in Me Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: My Year of Psychedelics: Lessons on Better Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Let's Tidy Up: The Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Enough Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals Presents: Good Girl: Notes on Dog Rescue Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sociopath: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Me: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Making It So: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bad Mormon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5See You on the Way Down: Catch You on the Way Back Up! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Many Lives of Mama Love (Oprah's Book Club): A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: Built for This: The Quiet Strength of Powerlifting Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wishful Drinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Y'all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Yes Please Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If You Would Have Told Me: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Night: New translation by Marion Wiesel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: Stand Your Ground: A Black Feminist Reckoning with America’s Gun Problem Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Unraveling
27 ratings4 reviews
What our readers think
Readers find this title brilliant, wise, funny, and truthful. The book offers interesting life lessons and explores micro topics. It is recommended for those who enjoy learning and stories about home.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5While I learned many interesting things about the entire process and in an entertaining enough manner, I had to slog through the author's liberal personal tangents to get there. Those were unnecessary to the story.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I quite enjoyed this story that was about much more than procuring your own wool and knitting a sweater. Highly recommend for those that like to learn about micro topics and those that like stories about home, whatever that might look like for you.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I was excited to read this book because my dad was a sheepherder & there were some interesting life lessons but at times too technical for me!!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5She is brilliant, wise, funny and speaks the truth a