Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World's Ugliest Sweater

“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.

What begins as one woman’s quest to make a sweater from a single sheep becomes a surprising journey into the biggest questions of our time.

• Shearing, Spinning, and Dyeing: Follow Peggy Orenstein as she learns to shear a sheep (without losing a finger), spin raw fleece into yarn, and create color from the plants in her own backyard.
• A Memoir of Grief and Transition: Discover how the steady rhythm of knitting helps the author navigate the grief of losing a parent, her daughter leaving for college, and the complex realities of aging.
• Sustainability and Connection: A personal craft project spirals into a fascinating investigation of climate anxiety, the history of textiles, and what it means to find our place in the world.
• Craft and Creativity: Witty, honest, and deeply moving, this is a book for every reader who has ever found solace, meaning, and their deepest self in the act of making.