This book is an older children’s/YA book, set in small-town America. It was published in the 80s or earlier. The major competition in the town is which of two women had the larger ball of yarn/string. Everyone adds their spare bits to one or the other – I believe the POV character (a girl) brought the string from around a package to add to one woman’s ball.
Eventually, the town decided they needed to know once and for all. One woman’s was measurably a little bit larger, but there was the question of how tightly it was wound, plus there was the rumor that there was a peach pit in the center.
In the end, they decided to answer the question by unwinding each ball around a racetrack or something. I think they may have had to knock out walls to get the balls out of their owners’ houses. Partway through the unwinding one of the balls did indeed start looking notably peach-pit-shaped, and that’s the last I remember.
Thanks for any help!
Probably the Mystery Yarn chapter from Homer Price by Robert McCloskey in which Homer’s Uncle Telly and the Sheriff compete for the affections of Miss Terwilliger (who owns the town knitting shop).
Uncle Telly and the Sheriff both collect string and as the town can’t afford to have the trotting races at the fair, the Sheriff challenges Uncle Telly to see who has the longest ball of string by unwinding it around the track. Uncle Telly agrees to on the condition that if he wins the Sheriff will make way for Uncle Telly to ask Miss Terwilliger to marry him.
However, clever Miss Terwilliger works out her own way to best the two men and enters the contest with her own big ball of yarn.
It’s the Homer Price book. I remember that story fondly.
I’ve been searching for this book for ages! Thank you!
It’s a chapter from Homer Price.