Hist Fict or Bio dealing with textile production?

[Marci]

Looking for a book to hook a non-reader (lack of interest, not of ability) who is VERY interested in spinning, weaving, etc. This is a young man (18) with Asperger's Syndrome. Textiles are his "thing". The book needs to not just be set in a mill or a factory etc, but actually deal with some of the details of production in order to interest him. Hoping that we can help him develop a love of reading by combining his fascination for textiles with a good narrative.

Any suggestions?

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

I haven't read them, but these were brought up in other threads on books dealing with textile mills:
Lyddie
Counting on Grace
The Passions of Emma
Call the Darkness Light

[Dee]

maybe some stuff on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory - blanking on titles right now - but i'll see what I can think of

[Marci]

I saw the earlier threads about textile workers. I am interested specifically in books that include detail about the process, not just books that use that setting. If someone has read any of the listed books and remembers whether that kind of detail is included, that would be very helpful.

[Ms.soule]

You might want to look through this list - I haven't read enough to recommend any in particular though:
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/23...

[Marci]

Thank you, Mrs.soule! I had not found that list!

[Andria]

I really recommend Gathering Blue, which is at the top of Mrs Soule's list. Details are hazy but as I recall, it goes into a LOT of detail about dying the thread and weaving the fabric. It's set in a dystopian/post-apocalyptic society, primitive and not advanced, so no factory, though.

From that list I'd also recommend The Broken Thread which is about a community of weavers.

[Andria]

Maybe also Anahita's Woven Riddle

[Amanda]

Lyddie does have a bit about the production of the textiles, but it was more about the title character's life and the working conditions in the mill. The illness that people got, the injuries people got, one girl got her hair caught in the machine, and how they used children because they were small enough to fit under the machines for a certain job. So yeah, it's mostly the bad side of the production. It was a very good book though.

[Jenna]

Campbell, Jennifer and Ann-Marie Bakewell. Complete Guide to Embroidery Stitches:
Photographs, Diagrams, and Instructions for Over 260 Stitches. New York: Reader’s
Digest Assocation Inc., 2006.

Hentschell, Roze. The Culture of Cloth in Early Modern England:Textual Constructions of a
National Identity. Ashgate, 2008.

Lemire, Beverley. Fashion’s Favourite: The Cotton Trade and the Consumer in Britain, 1660-
1800. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1991.

Montgomery, Florence M. and Linda Eaton. Textiles in America 1650-1870. W. W. Norton,
2007.

Weiner, Annette B. Cloth and Human Experience (Smithsonian Series in Ethnographic Inquiry).
Smithsonian, 1991.

[Teri-K]

He might also enjoy Adventures in Yarn Farming: Four Seasons on a New England Fiber Farm by Barbara Parry. It's about raising sheep for wool, but both my daughter and I enjoyed it a lot. (She spins, I weave, we both dye yarn and knit.)

[Lily]

As I started exploring, I found three more lists that might be of interest:

Fiction for the Fiber Artist
Textile and Fiber Art
Best Fantasy Books about Creative People

https://www.goodreads.com/list/tag/we...

You might try exploring book lists by other tags that may be of interest to your young friend. E.g., using "spinning" found this list:

Best Fiber Spinning Books
https://www.goodreads.com/list/tag?ut...

[Leiah]

There is a great textiles program at the U of Wyoming in Laramie a woman I knew attended. I was curious, and checked out some of the books available. Here are some that really interested me. There are more if you are interested, but these are fascinating (to me) in that they cover the history of textiles from prehistory forward, as well as going into the art, design, and the people who have carried the history forward. There are several here, but I have more! ;-)

I think it is wonderful you are doing this for your friend. Hugs. Leiah

































Spinning Yarns - A Centennial History of Alliance Textiles Limited and its predecessors1981
by G. J. McLean (Not listed on Goodreads)

















This isn't exactly "textiles" in the typical sense, but the Navajo School puts out a book: that is worth a look. It might interest that gorgeous mind.

P.S. - He might be interested in researching actual tapestries? I saw The Guernsey Tapestry when I was in Guernsey a few years back. http://www.guernseytapestry.org.gg/ It is amazing.

There are also:

The Bayeux Tapestry: http://www.bayeuxmuseum.com/en/la_tap...

The Getty has an incredible Goeblins collection: http://tinyurl.com/gqc33bu

One of the oldest is the Sampul Tapestry. On permanent display in the Xinjiang Museum, Ürümqi, China, it exists only in fragments now - unsurprising as it was found in a mass grave dating back to the third century BC. It had been turned into a pair of men's trousers, and the body was buried wearing them.

The last I checked, the Hestia Tapestry ( Byzantine tapestry, woven in Egypt during the 6th century AD) was in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection in Washington DC, but as exhibits change and move around as they are shared with other museums you would have to check with the Dumbarton to see if it is still on public display.

The Apocalypse Tapestry is one of the most amazing tapestries ever woven. The pieces which still exist (only 108 meters of the original tapestry - it was badly mutilated during the 14th century) hang in Angers France. I have only seen photos, but would love to see the exhibit. It is based on the visions of the prophet known as St. John, and covers the oldies-but-'goodies': famine, war, epidemic, you get the idea.

The Spanish Royal Collection holds many ancient tapestries in their vast collection - something like 8,000 I think? They hang all over Spain. Goya, Raphael, Michelangelo, and many other famous and now-nameless artists are represented.

He might be interested in the cultural and societal influences of tapestries, but the actual materials, design and the histories of the tapestries - who made them, what was happening at the time, even when and how they were damaged and later salvaged is fascinating.

OK... more info than you ever wanted to know, right? LOL

[``Laurie]

Body And Soul

The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth