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The Sunday Read
The Sunday Read is published twice a month (sometimes more, sometimes less). It brings the same global adventures and stunning pictures as Wild Fibers Magazine but with the convenience of online access and the addition of on-location videos.
To enjoy a selection of excerpts, please go here.
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Linda Cortright
Jun 24, 20238 min read
Shaking Hands With History
Recently, I have noticed that most everything written about St Kilda is in the past tense. It’s always “St Kilda was . . .” and never “St...
wildfibers
Jun 21, 20231 min read
For the few men left . . . life was hard
"For the few men left on Hirta life was hard. Lachlan Macdonald stayed to look after his mother. His father had died in a drowning...
Linda Cortright
Jun 21, 202315 min read
Eviction At Sea
On August 27, 1930, a small group of men, women and children began ferrying a few precious belongings down to the island’s jetty. They...
Linda Cortright
Jun 10, 20239 min read
A Thousand Sheep and A Thousand Broken Pieces - The Rise of Iona Wool
By some standards, my religious upbringing might be considered wanting. My parents unanimously decided that neither my brother nor myself...
Linda Cortright
May 28, 20238 min read
Two "Bools" In Paradise
You won’t find throngs of people waiting to the board ferry in Canna, the outermost isle of Scotland’s Inner Hebrides. At less than five...
Linda Cortright
May 22, 20235 min read
From Sheep To Ship
The story begins more than five hundred years ago inside a stone church in northern Norway. Someone, perhaps several someone’s, decided...
Linda Cortright
May 13, 20236 min read
Brooms, Blankets, and Vodka
When Anna Miller was four years old, she would travel twelve hundred miles to visit her grandmother. On the way home, she would sit in...
Linda Cortright
Apr 29, 20235 min read
One pair of socks, $1500
On my last day in New Zealand, I thought there were no more surprises left. I had already been surprised to learn that as part of...
Linda Cortright
Apr 22, 20236 min read
Harakeke-The Fiber That Nearly Killed the Māori
I am nothing short of appalled to learn my view of New Zealand’s natural fiber industry has been myopic. In a country that touted 78...
Linda Cortright
Apr 8, 20237 min read
Plant a Tree, Kill a Sheep?
An alarming number of New Zealand ranchers are beginning to yell "Timber!" The last time I visited New Zealand was in 2008; it had all...
Linda Cortright
Mar 26, 20239 min read
From the Back Of The Plane
I have never understood the Zen of running. No mixture of sweat, spandex, and battered joints will ever elicit any semblance of...
Linda Cortright
Mar 12, 202310 min read
Diamonds in the Rough
The remarkable story of how a fortune in diamonds led to a sheep farm in Namibia, and eventually poverty.
Robert Burton
Feb 18, 202315 min read
The Stunning Story of Seal Wool
Historian Robert Burton reveals a forgotten chapter in natural fibers with his investigation of wool from the Antarctica fur seal.
Linda Cortright
Feb 12, 202313 min read
Penguins, Wool, and Wine
Back in November, when most folks were spewing expletives as they navigated miles of Thanksgiving traffic and other challenges that come...
Linda Cortright
Jan 3, 20235 min read
"Down" on the Farm
There is no shortage of sheep to see during my tour of Iceland, particularly during lambing season when the population swells from...
Linda Cortright
Dec 3, 20228 min read
Crossing The Arctic Circle
It’s the middle of June and I am putting on my thick wool sweater, a red Gore-tex jacket, and a pair of tall rubber boots. I have just...
Linda Cortright
Nov 19, 20225 min read
The Mighty Mekong
At one time, long . . . long . . . ago, Cambodia was the epicenter of progress. The carvings along the temple walls at Angkor Wat tell...
Linda Cortright
Nov 5, 20227 min read
My Promise to Chum Mey
Several years ago, I visited the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.; a sunken wall of polished granite bearing tribute to more than...
Linda Cortright
Oct 20, 20229 min read
Wet and Sticky, Soft and Silky
A lesson in Vietnamese lotus silk Ms. Thuan is seventy-one-years-old, a fact she is quick to share in a country that reveres its elders....
Linda Cortright
Oct 2, 20225 min read
Chicken Feet
And other delicacies in Hanoi's old city “Do you like chicken feet?” My guide asks. “I have very good place in old city. Best chicken...
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