Peggy Orenstein: Unravelling

February 2nd, 2023

7:00pm

Did you try something new during lock down? Peggy Orenstein did. She took on creating a sweater from scratch-- from shearing the sheep and spinning the wool, to knitting it herself. Her captivating memoir tells us all about how she used this new interest to process the challenges she faced. 

Bookshop West Portal has a special interest in the crafts and in strong women. Thus we are especially excited to welcome Peggy Orenstein to celebrate the release of this latest book Unraveling: What I Learned about Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World's Ugliest Sweater. 

This event is free to attend and will take place at Bookshop West Portal. No registration is necessary, but early arrival is encouraged to get your seat. 

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.  

“Orenstein is such a breezy, funny writer, it’s easy to forget she’s an important thinker too.”—People

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 scratch: 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. 

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PEGGY ORENSTEIN is the New York Times bestselling author of Boys & Sex, Girls & Sex, Don’t Call Me Princess, Cinderella Ate My Daughter, Waiting for Daisy, Flux, and Schoolgirls. A contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and AFAR, her work has appeared in the Washington Post, New York, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and other publications, and she has contributed commentary to NPR’s All Things Considered and PBS NewsHour. Her TED Talk has been viewed over 5.7 million times.