Sheepish by Catherine Friend

Last week I finished Hit By A Farm and quickly dived into Sheepish by Catherine Friend. I know that I mentioned that I had taken a free mini-class on Craftsy called Know Your Wool and loved it. (For those of you who want the condensed version: wool is very cool with a lot of different types.) Thee course offered so much information on wool. I don't knit or do anything with wool presently so a lot of the information flew out of my head pretty quickly. I do however crochet and after reading Sheepish, I am determined to make some fantastic Christmas presents this year.

This book was fantastic. It was even better than Hit By A Farm. I must admit that at first, she calls people who are interested in wool and knitting fiber freaks. Having just finished that course and learning about being a shepherd, considering getting sheep (don't tell my husband) and being so excited about all my future/fantasy projects, I was a little perturbed and offended by her label. Granted, she wasn't saying I was a freak but still, it rubbed me the wrong way at first. (Let's blame it on hormones and call it a day, shall we?) As Ms. Friend started weaving her journey into fiber, spinning a yarn of farm stories along the way, I fell in love with her writing all over again.

This book is just as funny, sometimes sad and full of information. If you want to read some great stories about a farm, this book is for you. If you want to learn some history, this book is for you. If you want to understand the process of sheep wool to yarn, this book is for you. If you want a love story filled with every day happiness, humor and turbulence, this book is for you. If you think sheep are stupid, this book may educate you but if you aren't open to the possibility that they are not, in fact, stupid, this book is not for you.

Do you know where the word spinster came from? You will if you read this. Do you know why people say mutton chops? This question had been on my mind because my mother says it to the new baby all the time and drives me a little batty. Turns out to comes from sheep. When men started wearing those huge sideburns, they were called mutton chops because they looked like sheep. Who knew? (It is probably not very humble to admit this, but I feel nerdy and cool knowing this fact. Should I ever go to a party and not have anything to say, I will probably share it. Yes, I am that nerd.)

After finishing Hit By A Farm, I called my sister because the lamb you see in my pictures is a lamb that she brought back from one of her many Bulgarian archeology trips. As you can see, even the Bulgarian lamb was quite taken with this book, little imp.

Reading these great books, I decided to check out Ms. Friend's children books: The Perfect Nest, Funny Ruby, and Silly Ruby.

The Perfect Nest was a comical book about three birds fighting over the perfect nest. Having opened the nesting box's door just this week and witnessed multiple birds sitting on top of each other, I can attest that it happens and is ridiculous. The boys both loved the story.

Funny Ruby, and Silly Ruby are new reader books so the words and stories are very simple. I was not impressed because we are used to reading much more complicated books with the boys. Of course though, the boys both loved them. Lucas had me read them over and over and over. The pictures are nice and so are the stories and after the fourth read through, I had them memorized. They are perfect for young minds though because the boys took the short stories and ran with them. All week I have been hearing "No Ruby!" and "Silly Ruby" coming from their room. I have also heard "No, I am Ruby!" and "I'm be Topher (our farmer from Cricket Creek). You're Ruby!" coming from their mouths.

We love books and the books that spark the boys minds and imaginations are some of our favorites. Ms. Friend is a very special writer and we look forward to all of her new works.

This article was shared on The Chicken Chick, Homestead Barn Hop, Backyard Farming Connection, Tilly's Nest, The HomeAcre Hop, My Turn for Us, The Mind to Homestead,