Latest Blog Posts
Handmaking Spinning Tools
Words and Photos by Denise Williams Handspinning can be a very expensive craft. When I decided to start spinning yarn, I had bags of wool but no tools. Internet groups were beginning to spring up, with ample advice encouraging beginners to buy everything under the sun. I’m sure you’ve seen it all: hand carders, drum […]
Supported Spindle Tips Needed
Calling all supported spindle spinners! How do you travel with your supported spindles (and their support)? Share your tip by going to our Tip Jar submission page. Your tips will be printed in the Summer 2020 issue on supported spindles. The person who submits our absolutely favorite tip will get a prize from us! It’s […]
Guilded: Creating Community Through Cloth
Words and Photos by Sarah Thornton There’s a piece of cloth in my office: a shawl, about 22×72 inches, with twisted fringe, woven in a simple 4-shaft twill. The weft is a 2-ply white wool – nothing too special, rather coarse in fact, and somewhat unevenly spun and plied. The warp is a mirrored gradation […]
The Palindrome Experiment
Words and Photos by Rachel Simmons I remember the first time I heard the word palindrome. I was in the 4th grade, and I thought it was awesome. I mean, could “straw warts” really read the same backward as it does forward? The answer is yes. And that makes me happy in a strange inner […]
Low-tech wool (and other fibres) prep
Words and Photos by Joanne Seiff When was the last time you took a lock of raw or washed wool, teased it out into a cloud, and immediately spun it up? When I was taught to spin, back in the dark ages – the mid-1980s – we called this teasing the wool. This low-tech approach […]
