Clara Parkes

Last updated

Clara Parkes
NationalityAmerican
Alma materMills College
Known forTextiles

Clara Parkes is an American author, yarn critic, and wool expert. [1] [2] Parkes has been described as "quite possibly the only writer you will ever read who can make a discussion of micron counts absolutely riveting." [3]

Contents

Career

Parkes was taught to knit aged eight, by her grandmother. [4] After graduating from Mills College, Parkes began her career in high tech publishing in San Francisco before moving to Maine and launching her online magazine Knitter's Review in 2000. [4] [5] In 2012 she purchased a 676 lb. bale of American Merino wool and began a crowd-funded project known as The Great White Bale, in which she chronicled the process of turning the raw wool into finished yarn. [6] This project led to the creation of her own small-batch yarn company, Clara Yarn. [7] She is a Certified Level 1 Wool Classer, and a member of the American Sheep Industry Association. [8]

Parkes appeared in the Yarn Spotlight segment on the 9th, 10th, and 11th seasons of Knitting Daily TV, a television show produced by Interweave Press for PBS. [9]

In March 2020, Parkes launched TheDaily Respite, a brief daily general-interest newsletter via the Substack platform. [10] Her current undertaking is The Wool Channel, a multimedia effort to raise awareness and appreciation of wool. The Wool Channel outlets include a free newsletter and YouTube channel; paid members also have access to a long-form newsletter, a community app, and video content. [11]

Knitter's Review

In 2000 Parkes founded Knitter's Review, a knitting review website which became a major social media resource for knitters before the advent of Ravelry. [4] Using her experience creating the website Tech Shopper and technology acquired from the Quilter's Review, [12] she began to publish product reviews, a weekly newsletter, and created an interactive user forum. At its peak, the Knitter's Review Forums had over 70,000 members. [4] [13] For several years Knitter's Review sponsored a fundraising drive for Heifer International, raising in excess of $47,000. [14] In 2002 members of the forums created a small, in-person gathering that grew into a larger annual event known as the Knitter's Review Retreat. [15] By the time of the final Knitter's Review Retreat in 2015 it had become known as a "bucket list" item for knitters. [16] In 2015 she retired the old Knitter's Review site and forums, although many of her reviews and articles are still available at the site. [17]

Writing

Parkes is the author of seven books: the trilogy The Knitter's Book of...; the memoir The Yarn Whisperer, the travel memoir Knitlandia, and Vanishing Fleece, which chronicles her experience as a yarn producer. In addition, she edited the collection of essays A Stash of One's Own.

Her travel memoir Knitlandia: A Knitter Sees the World appeared on the New York Times bestseller list for travel books in 2016. [18]

She edited the anthology A Stash of One's Own: Knitters on Loving, Living with, and Letting go of Yarn, a collection of essays by knitting experts including Meg Swansen, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, and Debbie Stoller. It was named one of the top 10 lifestyle books for fall 2017 by Publishers Weekly. [19]

She is the narrator of the audiobooks The Yarn Whisperer: My Unexpected Life in Knitting,Knitlandia: A Knitter Sees the World, and Vanishing Fleece: Adventures in American Wool.

Personal life

Parkes lives in Portland, Maine. [4]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. ↑ Timmons, Heather. "China's latest genetic engineering experiment is a flock of sheep no one wants". Quartz. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
  2. ↑ Nassauer, Sarah (January 7, 2019). "Fiber Optics: Wool Lovers Battle Animal-Rights Crowd Over Sheep Shearing". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved April 8, 2019.
  3. ↑ Mooney, Mary (June 16, 2013). "Book review". The Oregonian. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Krementz, Cheryl (2007). "Chatting with Knitting's New Guard". Vogue Knitting (Fall): 86–103.
  5. ↑ Blumenstock, Kathy (February 8, 2016). "The Story of a 'Yarn Evangelist' Who Traveled in Search of Her Congregation". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
  6. ↑ "Clara Yarn from Clara Parkes". Interweave Knits: 10. Fall 2014.
  7. ↑ Singer, Amy (May 2017). "Scarce By Design" (PDF). Yarn Market News: 34.
  8. ↑ Korkzan, Shireen (December 24, 2018). "'Shop local' movement drives sales of American-made yarn". AP NEWS. Retrieved April 10, 2019.
  9. ↑ "Yarn Expert Clara Parkes Joins Knitting Daily TV!". Interweave. May 7, 2012. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
  10. ↑ "The 80 Best Single-Operator Newsletters on the Internet". InsideHook. Retrieved May 18, 2022.
  11. ↑ Pohlig, Molly (2021–2022). "Channel Your Knowledge: Clara Parkes, The Wool Channel". Vogue Knitting. Winter 21/22: 22.
  12. ↑ "Clara Parkes, the Yarn Seer". Interweave. July 18, 2017. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
  13. ↑ "Special Report: Online-Only Publishers". Folio. April 30, 2009. Retrieved April 7, 2019.
  14. ↑ "Rubbing Elbows with the Knitterati: An Interview with Clara Parkes | Heifer International | Charity Ending Hunger And Poverty". Rubbing Elbows with the Knitterati: An Interview with Clara Parkes | Heifer International | Charity Ending Hunger And Poverty. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
  15. ↑ Martini, Adrienne, 1971– (2010). Sweater quest : my year of knitting dangerously (1st Free Press trade paperback ed.). New York: Free Press. ISBN   9781416597643. OCLC   424555373.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  16. ↑ Steege, Gwen (2011). The Knitter's Life List . US: Storey Publishing, LLC. ISBN   978-1603429962.
  17. ↑ "Home". Knitter's Review. Retrieved May 18, 2022.
  18. ↑ "Travel Books – Best Sellers – March 13, 2016 – The New York Times". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved April 8, 2019.
  19. ↑ "Fall 2017 Announcements: Lifestyle". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved April 7, 2019.
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