News – PLY Magazine

PLY has an index!

March 25, 2025/0 Comments/in News/by Emily Davis-Hale

We’ve just released our 48th issue, which is really exciting as there’s lots of great new content to share with you. Sometimes, though, you might want to return to previous issues to look up something you remember reading or a new interest you’ve developed. But that can be challenging with so many back issues and articles to look through. So we’ve put together an index to make searching those back issues much easier.

You’ll find the index on the PLY website. If you’re using a tablet or mobile device, there’s a link on that page for a mobile-friendly version of the index.

You can search for articles in several ways: by author, by title (or words in the title), by words from the description, by issue topic, and from a list of keywords (article topics). We’ve put together a video showing how to use the various search options to find articles.

Once you’ve found the article you want to learn more about, click the link on the article title to open up the entry for that article. There you’ll find the article description and a link to the issue in our shop.

Guess what? Not only does this index include all articles from the issues of PLY, it also includes all the episodes in the PLY Spinners Guild! And if you’re a guild member, there’s a link directly to that episode so you can jump right in and watch the segment. (If you’re not a guild member, you can sign up for a 3-day free trial.)

We are still working on adding in the descriptions and list of article topics for some of the issues (although all the articles and authors are already there) and should have that finished by the end of April, if not sooner!

Designer Interview: Shana Cohen

March 13, 2025/1 Comment/in Community, News, sneak peek/by Meagan Condon

PLY is proud to work with some incredible artists, tool makers, and designers. Today we’d like to feature Shana Cohen, a designer whose Palimpsest cardigan pattern appeared in the recent Winter 2024 Care issue of PLY.

Tell us a little bit about yourself? (the hardest-to-answer question first!)

I’m a knitting pattern designer, architect, design educator, and new spinner! I love creative problem-solving and helping makers to become the best versions of themselves. I hold this true in all of my design processes, and pride myself on meeting my students where they are and helping each student to work to their full potential. I am an empath and extrovert who loves coffee, friends, hiking, and creativity. I live in the Denver, CO, area with my husband and son.

How did you get started designing patterns?

I have been involved in creative problem-solving for my entire adult life through my career in architecture and design education. As an architect, I create a set of design directions to solve a prompt. As a design educator, I write assignments for students to solve creative problems while honing their own creative voices. As a knitting pattern designer, I’m doing very similar things: creating a set of design directions for the maker to execute in an asynchronous manner. My first pattern was a superhero cape designed for my son. He asked me for a knit cape with stripes going in two different directions. We worked in a designer-client relationship to come up with a design to meet his needs. I felt a renewed sense of creative energy while solving this problem, and the experience got me out of a funk and helped shape my design identity.

In the Care issue, you tell us a little about your inspiration for the Palimpsest pattern. Can you tell us a little more about how you gather inspiration for your patterns?

I look at my design process as solving a problem for a client, just as I’ve been trained in architecture. I ask questions and propose a design to meet the needs while staying true to my own values of working with clean and thoughtful details and maximizing material use. Sometimes I am struck by a missing piece in my wardrobe or daily life, and other times I get excited by a yarn or a particular detail I want to try. Every so often I am struck by a word or a name that drives the design forward. When I collaborate with others, I think about how to create a design that will showcase us both in the best light.

How long does it take for you to work out a pattern and what does your process look like?

Sometimes I can get through a design in a matter of weeks, from concept to sample and pattern, but most often it’s a longer process for me. I work in sketches and study models (three-dimensional scaled swatches) throughout my design process. I often “road test” a piece before really solidifying it: that is, I make a full-scale mock-up (it might be in the final yarn, or in some instances, a piece of fleece fabric or sheet to test a shape or idea) and then I live with it for a bit, figuring out if the size and proportion is what I’m really going for. I use smaller study models and swatches to experiment with assembly and finishing details, and I often make smaller pieces to photograph or record a video of my process to help explain the details. This process also helps me to make sure that my writing really matches what I actually did! Occasionally I think of a design idea in my head and create nearly the entire thing with limited notes. In these instances, I end up making another version (or portion of a version) while I write to make sure I’m following my own directions! I try to create directions to accommodate many types of makers: those who prefer precise instructions for how many colors to use and where to change colors, for example, as well as those who prefer to freestyle a bit more.

How do you view and use handspun yarn as a designer?

As I mentioned, I’ve been lucky enough to have knitters execute my designs with their handspun yarn for a few years, and I’ve asked them about how they make pattern choices for their handspun yarn to help understand my own writing moving forward. I believe my modular designs show off handspun yarn because there are often smaller stitch counts and changing directions in the fabric, which allows the yarn to shine in different ways. My designs usually use a looser gauge, and I find they are forgiving for variations in yarn thickness.

What are your favorite and least favorite parts of the design process?

I love coming up with an idea and creating a pattern that allows others to make a unique version of my design. I always do a bit of a happy dance when someone chooses to make one of my patterns! The design process can be very solitary and long, and sometimes my designs just don’t work out the way I plan. I put a lot of myself into my work, and sometimes I get bogged down with other life events and need space from a design, so it doesn’t become tied to a negative memory.

Do you have any inspirational words or suggestions for ways our spinners can better incorporate handspun yarn in their knitting?

As I’m still a newer spinner myself, I look at larger pieces entirely completed with handspun yarn and I feel a bit overwhelmed, so what about trying out your yarn with something small? I have a few fidget toys in my design portfolio, and they were some of the first patterns I used to test out my handspun yarn. These tiny pieces hold memories of my own making, and the rich texture of my handspun yarn adds to the tactile quality of these handheld treasures. Also, you can use your handspun along with a commercial yarn in a striped or textured piece. I’ve recently created a few designs that do this. I’ve intentionally finished with details in the commercial yarn rather than handspun for a smoother finish, but the beauty of creating is that you get to choose what you make!

Meet the New Editor in Chief: Karen Robinson

March 4, 2025/0 Comments/in Frontpage Article, News/by Karen

With the publication of the Spring 2025 issue, the news is now official. PLY Magazine has a new editor in chief.

Jacey has served in that role since PLY began. Don’t worry! Jacey isn’t going anywhere! But the addition of the PLY Spinners Guild and WEFT Magazine mean that Jacey has been making adjustments to her role. Officially, she’s the Publisher and Director of all things in the PLY/WEFT universe. And she very much has a large day-to-day role in the running of each of those entities. But she’s also supported by the rest of the team for PLY, the PSG, and WEFT.

Enter Karen Robinson. That’s me! I’m not new to PLY. Back in 2014 (I got the news on Thanksgiving Day), I started working for PLY as the magazine’s copy editor. The first issue I worked on was the Leicester issue (rather appropriate since BFL is one of my favorite fibers to spin). In 2018, Jacey asked if I wanted to take on more tasks, mostly involving coordinating with the authors. We briefly thought about calling this role Author Wrangler but decided on the more typical (although less exciting) title of Managing Editor.

Since that time, I’ve taken on more and more responsibilities at PLY. The one that has been most exciting is meeting with Jacey and Jillian Moreno (our developmental editor) to decide on the articles for each issue. We’ve updated and revised some of our processes – and updated and revised some more. We’ve added new ideas for article series to the pages of PLY and retired others. Holding the print version of each issue in my hands is always such a delight in thinking about everything that went into putting it together.

So in many ways, this move to editor in chief feels natural in how my role has evolved over my past decade with PLY. And in many ways not much has changed/will change.

Issue development

Jacey, Jillian, and I are still meeting each quarter to put together the contents of each issue. Actually, we have made some adjustments here. Now we meet three times for each issue: once to come up with our dream issue, everything we’d love to see in the issue if we could fit it all in. And now after that meeting, I write up the mood board for that issue. Then we meet closer to the submission deadline to start structuring the issue and turning that dream issue into something closer to reality. And we meet a final time after the submission deadline and make final decisions and assign articles to authors.

Usually after that meeting, Jacey would email authors/potential authors to either clarify an article’s content or to ask if someone would like to write a specific article that we wanted to include but did not yet have a writer for. Contacting authors/potential authors is now my task, and I got to do it already for the upcoming Long Draw issue (Winter 2025), which means I got to make the final decisions on which authors to assign to which articles. None of those were decisions Jacey was against, but it’s possible she would have made slightly different decisions.

Jacey has always been the one to set up the order the articles will appear in each issue, plotting out how a reader might work their way through the articles in a way that makes sense and adds to the experience. I got to do that for the first time with the upcoming Tension issue (Summer 2025). I did get feedback from Jacey afterwards and made a few changes, but for the most part I’ll be making those decisions for future issues as well.

One of the other decisions I have more input on is the selection of the cover for each issue. Although she’s gotten feedback from the rest of us at PLY, Jacey has made the final decisions on the photo/illustration for the cover. For the Hue issue (Spring 2025), I made that decision – and it wasn’t a cover that Jacey hated but it also wasn’t what she would have chosen (as she finds it “too cute”). She wanted to use an image that was similar to the cover way back on the Color issue (we originally used that image on the back cover of Hue but made a change to the back cover to honor Stephenie Gaustad).

Behind the scenes

I’m learning a lot more about the back end of putting together a magazine. Previously, I didn’t deal with the subscription software or the printer at all. Now I’ve gotten really comfortable with that software (good thing my original major in college was computer science!), and I’m much more in the loop with the communications with the printer. I’ve been learning how Jacey decides how many copies of each issue to print and she’s been asking for my thoughts on a lot of the rest of those types of decisions.

For a few months, I answered the emails that came into our customer service email address. Our previous customer service person left the magazine toward the end of last year, and instead of hiring someone else right away, I took on that role. It really helped me see the interactions that happen with you, our readers, and the types of problems that come up (as well as compliments!). Although I’m glad now to turn that job over to our new customer service person, Sarah, it was really good to have that experience so I could learn even more about running all parts of the magazine.

I’m much more involved with the other members of the PLY team, coordinating with everyone to make sure they have what they need to fulfill their work. I’ve been meeting one on one with them, and it’s been so wonderful to get to know each one a little better and have more interaction with them. And I took the lead on the search for our new editorial assistant, reading through the applications, making interview decisions and doing the interviews, and then making the final hiring decision.

Ultimately, although there are some decisions that might be different from what Jacey would have picked, such as the cover art, since Jacey and I have worked so closely (and so well) together for so many years, and will continue doing so, I don’t know that you’ll really notice very many changes to PLY. It will very much remain the magazine you’ve known and loved over the years.

Quick facts about Karen

Karen has been knitting since 2004, spinning since 2010, and dabbling in crochet here and there
She and her husband will be celebrating their silver anniversary this year (has it really been that long?)
They have a teenage son who loves video games (especially Minecraft and Roblox) and history (especially World War II); his career goal is to be a video game designer and create historically accurate games
They have three Boston Terriers (Luna, Nugget, and Oliver) and two cats (Wall-E and Eva)
They live in Texas (Karen was born there and left the state for graduate school but returned)
Karen has a PhD in English, with a focus on medieval literature especially the legends of King Arthur
She ran a yarn dyeing business, Round Table Yarns, for 6 years (yup, it was Arthurian themed!)
She designed knitting patterns as well, under KarenDawn Designs, and self-published two knitting pattern books (Gawain’s Shield and Parliament of Cowls)
She hosted a knitting podcast called T-Shirts and Shawls for a couple of years
She teaches copyediting classes through the UCSD Extended Studies program
She copy edits fantasy books, usually by indie authors, although she’s currently not taking on new clients
She loves to read, especially fantasy and science fiction, and is always happy to help recommend a book in those genres to you
She really wonders how she finds time for all of the above!

Karen in a handknit sweater in a field with standing stones and sheep in northern England

Parliament of Cowls, one of Karen's books

What is luster?

February 25, 2025/0 Comments/in News, Science!/by Meagan Condon

Oh, no! Meagan is at it again! Can we tackle an easier topic, like the cure for cancer or world peace, please? While the word luster brings to mind pearls and diamonds, it can be difficult to nail down exactly what luster means in regard to fiber. This is complicated by the fact that luster is most commonly used to describe mineralogy. Most of us can gather that it has something to do with shininess and light and that some fibers are shiny and some are not. This is a good place to start our exploration!

Luster is… how light reflects off a surface
Words we use to describe luster… shine, brilliance, glow, radiance, luminosity

While that sounds like a simple explanation, this is where it gets complicated. Light may reflect off the surface layer or may pass through the top layer and reflect off the layers beneath, presenting a different reflective quality.

Commercial production of rayon and wool use a full list of official descriptors applied to luster:

1. Clear
2. Bright
3. Semi-Dull
4. Semi-Matte
5. Dull
6. Matte
7. Extra Dull
8. Super Dull

Luster in fiber is often expressed as a range from shiny to dull, with the most shiny and most dull fibers easily identified near the ends of the spectrum and all other fibers somewhere in the middle. Lincoln and Teeswater might be at one end while Southdown is at the other. However this doesn’t take into effect how the light is reflected. How would silk compare to Teeswater? Not all shiny is equal. For today, let’s stick to wool.

Luster in wool

The microscopic structure of wool is one of the primary factors in determining the luster of the fiber. For example, high-luster wools like Coopworth, Teeswater, and Wensleydale are fundamentally different from low-luster wools like Merino, Cormo, or Southdown. Beside crimp structure, the main difference between these wools is the size of the scales that make up the surface of the fiber. High-luster wools have larger scales which cover more surface area. When light hits these larger scales, more light is reflected in one direction, creating more shine. Low-luster wools have smaller scales. This causes the light to diffuse in different directions, so less light will be directed toward the eye.

I mentioned crimp. Crimp can also impact how lustrous a fiber appears. A higher crimp wool redirects light in many more directions than a low crimp wool, resulting in a more matte appearance.

What suppresses luster? How it is spun!

It is important to understand how luster changes when spun. In the most basic sense, worsted spinning makes use of a short forward draw and a combed fiber preparation to create a smooth, dense yarn. Woolen spinning makes use of a long draw and a carded fiber preparation, usually rolags, to create a light, fuzzy, warm yarn.

A worsted yarn will always be more lustrous than a woolen yarn of the same type of fiber. In a worsted yarn, we smooth down the fibers, helping them to align more parallel to each other. When the fibers are aligned, light tends to reflect in the same direction, making the fiber appear more lustrous. More light reaches our eyes. On the other hand, a woolen yarn has fibers crossing and going in all different directions. The different angles and bends of the individual fibers redirect light in all different directions, resulting in a duller appearance.

In addition to woolen and worsted techniques, the amount of twist you add can impact luster as well! The more twist added, the less luster. Why? The more bumps there are, the more light is diffused in different directions.

Try this!

Luster is impacted by how we spin. If we take a fairly lustrous fiber, how will the luster present in the finished yarn if we spin it with a worsted method vs a woolen method?

You will need:

A sample of lustrous wool, like Teeswater, Wensleydale, or Cotswold
A spindle or spinning wheel

Spin a sample of yarn using a woolen long draw.
Spin a second sample of yarn using a short forward draw.
Compare the two samples.
1. Which one appears more lustrous?
2. What words would you use to describe the luster of each?
3. Can you think of a reason you might try to reduce the luster of a high-luster fiber by spinning it woolen?
4. What other tricks could you try to increase or decrease the luster of your samples?

Challenge!

Take the same fiber and wet spin it. How does this sample reflect light when compared to the first two?

Tell us in the comments!

The Woolly Animal of Dawn

February 20, 2025/0 Comments/in News/by Guest Blogger

Words and photos by Christina Socorro Yovovich

No matter when I go to bed, I wake between 4:30–5:00 a.m. Months ago, I gave up fighting this and decided these predawn hours were for me. My husband often stays up late and has admitted that he relishes these solitary midnight hours because everyone else is asleep; nobody is going to make any demands on him. He can do what he likes – work until the wee hours, read old comics, watch shows I have no interest in. I understand, because for me the predawn hours are like this. And what do I do in these hours where nobody makes any demands? I create. Sometimes I knit. Sometimes I write. But mostly, I spin.

I always open the west curtains covering the patio doors first, to let in the darkness. My spinning wheel lives in front of this floor to ceiling window, and when I am seated on the ottoman I place in front of the wheel, at first all I can see is my own reflection. Some mornings I put on a fiber arts podcast or an audiobook. Other mornings I choose to let my thoughts drift where they will. I pull out the wool of the moment, sometimes something sheep colored, sometimes dyed in the hues of a sunrise or a body of water, and I begin to spin.

It is a tactile occupation. No matter how much I try to learn about the technical aspects of spinning, in the darkness at 4:30 a.m. spinning is simply me holding the woolly animal of dawn in my hands as my feet treadle in rhythm to my breaths, and I draft and let in the twist and then let the newly made yarn wind onto the bobbin, and none of it is thought, but feeling, an occupation of instinct. Although I only started spinning a year ago, my body believes it has been longer. My body believes I have been spinning since the predawn of agriculture, my hands setting a spindle twisting against my thigh over and over again as I draft the fiber in my hands. Don’t reason with the body, ever.

There are thoughts as I spin, sometimes a tight focus on a book being read over my phone’s speaker. Sometimes simply my thoughts, going where they will. I am bipolar, having been diagnosed so for nearly three decades, and I have complex-PTSD, having been diagnosed so for less than a year. I have thoughts, hard thoughts, and though I try not to drown in them, I’ve found that if I let them drift through me while I spin in the dawn, they do not overwhelm me. My feet are treadling, my left hand holds the roving, my right hand lets in the twist. I am rooted and no memory can completely overtake me.

I began knitting the year I turned 49, and a large reason was because I read knitting has a similar effect on those with PTSD as EMDR therapy. Eye Movement and Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy is a mental health technique that involves moving the eyes in a certain way under the direction of a mental health practitioner while recalling a traumatic memory. Its aim is to help a person process the trauma so that it becomes a thing that happened in the past and not a thing that still overtakes them in horrible flashbacks. I do not understand how or why it works, but it seems to have something to do with using different parts of the brain and with crossing the midline of the body.

A couple months after I picked up knitting, I began to spin as well. I have not read it anywhere, but surely spinning, with how it uses the whole body, both sides of it, the feet in rhythm, the hands each with their separate task, surely spinning is the same as knitting when it comes to processing trauma. It allows me to have these memories without being overwhelmed. They come and then leave, and through it all, I am okay, still rooted to my wheel and my wool, not floating through recollections in a way that allows them to traumatize me anew.

My window faces west, so I don’t see the sun rising over the Sandia mountains. Instead, I see the black sky gradually become alight. First just a hint of something not black. Then a rosy dawn. When I see the pink sky outside instead of my own reflection, I cease spinning. I have spun in the day. It is time to rise from the wheel to step into the bustle of making breakfasts, packing my son’s lunch, being a part of a family and community that does make demands on my time. I do so joyfully, fortified by my predawn creativity, by learning to let memories be memories and not things that overtake. I have not been a spinner for long, but already I cannot imagine a life without its grounding presence.

Born and raised in Wisconsin, Christina Socorro Yovovich has lived in New Mexico since 1998. Her nonfiction has appeared in The Hunger, Cagibi, MUTHA Magazine, the Atticus Review, and elsewhere. She is currently working on and seeking representation for a fiber arts memoir about wool, mothering, and mental health. She can be found at https://christinasocorroyovovich.com/

I Want to Tell You About My Friend

February 18, 2025/7 Comments/in Community, News/by Jacey Faulkner

I don’t want to tell you that Stephenie Gaustad was a great spinner. Everyone knows that.

I don’t want to say she was a talented and generous fiber artist. If you have ever taken a class with her or read one of her books or articles, you already know that too.

I want to tell you about how warm her hugs were and how she never let go first. I want you to know how funny she was, how her eyes twinkled when she smiled, how she followed her heart in all things, and how she loved getting in good trouble. I want to tell you about the Stephenie I knew and how much I loved her.

The first time I fell into the arms of Stephenie Gaustad was at SOAR in 2010. Her flax to linen workshop was next to my textured yarns workshop. When I got to the part of the class where I have everyone spin a thick and thin singles yarn from cotton, a spinner in my class (who had recently taken a class with Steph) hopped up and ran out the door.

The retting sounds from next door halted, and Stephenie Gaustad walked through the adjoining classroom door.

“What’s this about spinning cotton thick and thin? Handspun cotton needs to be spun fine, with lots of twist, and very even.”

I was not a cotton spinner. My spinning skill was not nearly at the cotton “spun fine, with lots of twist, and very even” level. I only used cotton as an (extreme) example of how you can spin any combed fiber into a thick and thin yarn if you pay attention to the staple length.

I haltingly and nervously explained that even the shortest cotton can create a stable thick and thin singles yarn as long as you make your thick section shorter than the staple length so that the ends of the fibers are caught in the high-twist thin section on either end of the thick bit. I demonstrated as Stephenie (along with all my students and hers) stood around my wheel watching.

When I finished, she whooped!

She whooped and hugged me, and we never saw each other again when we didn’t hug and huddle up.

Because we both made a living travelling to teach, we saw each other often. One evening, after several days of teaching, we sat next to each other, exhausted, in a Chinese restaurant. I leaned in and whispered to her all my plans for starting a magazine. She smiled and her eyes twinkled. You have never seen such a twinkle.

When the first issue of PLY came out, she sent me a short length of handspun thick and thin cotton and a letter:

Dearest Jacey, Ply is fantastic! I love that you have multiple voices on a single topic, and really hear the person as he/she takes time with answers. This is what strikes me first. I get the chance to focus on something, spend time with it and not rush off in another direction 2 pages later. I treasure this copy and will refer back to it time and again.

Your enthusiasm for the craft and project is palpable too. It is so exciting. I feel transported back in time, actually to a decade when new magazines were popping up right and left, in different formats; it all was new and fresh. Ply is a breath of fresh air!
-Stephenie

Now it is time for Alden to add his 2 cents.

Well, I am flabbergasted. The scope of the work is mindboggling. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination and energy. The mag is a visual knockout, the advertising is arranged with taste and finesse and considering the stated purpose “the magazine for handspinners” what can I say but bravo! Huzzah! You are a phoenix rising in a world of turkeys.
-AA

From that first issue on, Stephenie was in almost every single issue of PLY and she and I were firm friends. I don’t even know if that’s true. I feel like I wasn’t friends with Stephenie – we were family. She was the closest thing I had to a grandmother, and when my mom died, she was there for me. Stephenie’s hugs were the warmest and she’d hold on as long as I needed.

Of course there were other things, business things, that happened – she became PLY’s technical editor, she taught at PLYAway every year, she wrote a wonderful book with us. But it’s the actual time I spent with Stephenie, the moments, that I remember and that mean the most. She went to a May Day festival at my kids’ school with me once. She beamed as we watched dozens of kids in handmade dresses, dancing and wrapping the May pole. She leaned over and whispered in my ear, “I’m pagan,” and held my hand the whole time.

Last year she visited us in Oregon. I offered to fly her out, but she insisted on driving. She pulled up in a giant SUV filled floorboards to roof with spinning wheels and tools (almost all built for her by Alden). My kids unloaded the tools as Steph and I sat on the porch and talked about the future of fiber arts.

That night, after dinner, Stephenie, the kids, and I played Telestrations – a cross between the old telephone game and Pictionary. I had never seen Steph laugh so hard as I did that night. Stephenie was a part of my life. She was a part of my family’s life. We were family. I will miss her forever.

While she was here that time, we filmed the first Teacher Tea for the PLY Spinners Guild. It’s a segment where I sit down with spinning teachers, drink tea, and talk. It was so early in the PSG that we didn’t have good lighting yet, hadn’t figured out how to get a decent sound track, didn’t even have the PSG studio set up nicely, but none of that matters because Steph is such a joy. We’ve made the teacher tea with Steph public, viewable to everyone, guild member or not. Please sit down with some tea of your own and spend some time with this dear, darling woman.

https://www.plyspinnersguild.com/videos/9-teacher-tea-steph

Stephenie Gaustad was a wonder, and the world is better for having her in it. I’m better for having known her. Since I heard the news, I’ve been rereading all the emails she’d ever sent me, and it is helping replace some of the tears with smiles. Her closing lines especially help. I’m including a few of them here. I hope they make you smile too.

Hope that your spring days are full of beautiful green growth and smiles,
-SG

This morning’s rainbow reminded me of you. You are all the colors and you always bring a smile,
-SG

Well, the snow has turned to rain. It really is kind of late in the year for it. It is o.k. I have plenty of fiber to spin here, and a few wheels to do this.
-SG

You see, dear friend, I didn’t want to scare the hell out of you with dire futures. It ain’t like that one bit. I want to give you, dear friend, good news. And this is it.
-SG

The rain will pass, my dear Jacey. The rain will pass and you and I will keep growing,
-SG

So don’t fret over me. (In my best “Arnie voice”, “I’ll be back!”)
-SG

So I am laying here this evening basking in the glow of a completed job and oh boy, Jacey, my dear, are we going to have run raising some dust! Whoopee!
-SG

Stephenie Gaustad

August 1947–February 12, 2025

New Guild Episode Drops Saturday!

February 13, 2025/in Guild, News/by Meagan Condon

Are you ready for this? The latest guild episode is coming! I repeat, the latest guild episode is coming!

Saturday (February 15, 2025) we reveal the 14th (and final) episode for season 1 of the PLY Spinners guild! It rounds out a season full of foundational spinning episodes taught by some of the best spinners and spinning teachers around. And boy, is it a doozy! Featuring several greats in our community—Stephenie Gaustad, Michelle Boyd, Roy Clemes, and Jacey Boggs Faulkner—this episode is a wrap of of the season with some (older) never-before-seen segments that were too good not to share, and some (newer) segments on small fiber processing tools and yarn handling tools. There’s some stuff on oiling and leaders, and a great, giant segment on getting started spinning (because Jacey didn’t want anyone to go any further without having a good handle on the basics). So if you just need a refresher, this baby should get you up to speed. Finally it also includes a segment on how to use the guild—a segment you can (and should) watch on YouTube. You won’t want to miss out.

Join the PLY Spinners Guild Here

If you’d like to learn more from your favorite fiber instructors, make sure your membership is active! Each month is jam packed with new instructional videos and virtual spin-ins. Membership is cumulative, meaning you get access not only to the current episode, but also to every previous episode and recorded spin-in as well.

New Monthly Building Skills Spin-in

The PLY Spinners Guild (PSG) hosts three 90 minute spin-ins every month:

On the first Sunday of every month, guild members meet and spin at 5 p.m. Pacific.
On the third Sunday of every month, guild members meet and spin at 10 a.m. Pacific.

However, those spin-ins can get more technical and in-depth than some spinners are ready for or comfortable with. In response, we’re launching a new monthly spin-in! T

he Building Skills Spin-in will start in March and will take place at 5 p.m. Pacific on the third Thursday on each month.

The first one will be on March 20. Just like all the PSG spin-ins, guild members will get a spin-in link the week before the spin-in and it’s always posted in the PSG forums.

The guild is priced at $85/year or $12/month. This is a very good deal for the amount of information and community you will get, especially since new video lessons are added every six weeks! This fee allows us to pay for the substantial hosting required by so many high-def videos and the charge per member to access the site, along with fairly compensating the teachers, editors, and everyone involved in making the guild work.

If you aren’t already a member, we think you’d definitely enjoy it!

The PLY Spinners Guild is a space for spinners at all levels of spinning. We are an inclusive and diverse community that embraces all spinners and welcomes everyone to create a brave space to question, challenge, and support one another. We strongly believe that the more diverse our community is, the stronger our community is. Our core beliefs of kindness, diversity, and inclusivity inform everything we do. Racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression will not be tolerated. We reserve the right to remove anyone who meaningfully and purposefully disrupts the community or makes other members feel unsafe.

Call for Blog Submissions: Tension

February 6, 2025/in Call for Blog Posts, News/by Meagan Condon

While the Tension issue of PLY is already in the works (and it looks like another great one!) we are looking for quality related posts for the blog! Did you have an idea you didn’t submit? Or did you miss the submission window?

The blog process is much simpler than the magazine process (which involves contracts and samples sent in, photographs, tech editing, etc.) Instead, you’ll need to send your own photos, and your post will go through a copy edit but no other part of the magazine article process. If your blog submission is accepted and published, we’ll send you a $50 honorarium via PayPal.

Submit your blog proposal here!

Please submit your blog post proposal by March 15, 2025. If your post proposal is accepted, we’ll need your words and photos by May 1, 2025. We’ll be posting the Tension posts on the blog in June, July, and August 2025.

Find the mood board below! (Note: We’ve changed the colors for the issue from the ones on this mood board to something more “summery” so don’t feel limited to the colors here.)

PLY Summer 2025 – Tension (Blog posts)

Tension is one of those elements we use all the time while we spin. Think about all the ways tension figures into and impacts your spinning. We want to hear about all of them!

Wheel tension and wheel systems: how do they work and which works best for what type of yarn? Is there a reason spinners might like this one over that one? How about drive bands and brake bands? How often should you change them, and what considerations go into the types of materials that are you favorites? What about e-spinners?

It’s often confusing to keep track of the amount of tension while spinning. Do you have great tips on notating and measuring your take-up?

Crosslacing is a fantastic technique for decreasing tension. When do you use it and how do you do it on different wheels. Do you have any other methods to reduce the tension?

Tensile strength is all about how much tension a fiber can be put under before it breaks. Which fibers are the strongest? Which breeds? When prepping fibers, the amount of tension used often results in unwanted neps. Do you have tips for reducing or eliminating them on hand cards, a blending board, or a drum carder?

Can the right amount of tension make or break the consistency while plying yarn? Why do we need tension to ply? What tips do you have to use tension to ply a consistent yarn? Is tension the key to reducing bumps in chain-ply yarns? What can you tell us about the different styles of kates and their tensioning systems and when you might use a particular type for both wheels and spindles? When do you apply more tension; when do you just let your bobbins spin?

What about textured and art yarns? Bouclé, spirals, coils, beehives, core spun, and other textured yarns rely on differential tension while plying. Tell us how you determine how much and how little tension make the best textured yarns. How do you control the mixed tension and still keep a yarn tidy? Is there a yarn that uses no tension?

How about color? Why do some colors seem to vibrate and explode when they are next to each other? Is there a way to make it happen or lessen the visual tension?

What about the release of tension? How do you plan, spin, and weave a structure that collapses on itself? What about knitting? Releasing the tension in high-twist singles can create sculptural effects. Can you teach us about it?

A Spinner’s Toolbox . . . Literally

February 4, 2025/0 Comments/in News, We couldn't fit it in the print issue!/by Guest Blogger

Words and photos by Kai Solon

Every spinner’s most prized possession is most likely their wheel. Our wheels are what enable us spinners to do the thing we love. However, like all pieces of machinery, they have to be cared for and maintained. Now, this is not necessarily a “how to fix a broken wheel” tutorial because every wheel is different and every scenario is different. Today, I would just like to share with you a few essential tools every spinner should have handy to keep a wheel in working condition and fix solutions to tiny problems.

Why should you keep tools around?

First off, I am not telling you to start carrying around a woodshop’s worth of tools everywhere your wheel goes. That would be unreasonable. However, our wheels can be unpredictable, and a number of things could happen. A drive band could snap, a screw could come out, a spring could become uncoiled, or something simple like your wheel sounding super creaky and annoying. Having the basic tools around is helpful when your wheel decides to stop working out of the blue.

For example, at the Junior Spinning Competition MDSW 2024, a contestant’s drive band’s knot suddenly came loose and we needed a quick fix to make it tight again. We were able to fix it in time for the competition, but events like these remind me how important it is to keep spare parts around!

Of course, not everyone is going to be in a competition every time they spin. However, if you frequently demo, travel with your wheel, or are simply an avid spinner, keeping spare parts to your wheel can be a miracle when your wheel breaks or doesn’t work quite right.

What exactly should you have?

Each spinner will have different needs according to their wheel type. Some of these tools might even depend on individual preference. Not every one of these are extremely important. In fact, some of these only need to be used once in a blue moon. This might seem like a long list, but trust me, everything here has a purpose depending on the situation.

1. Oil

Oil is the one thing all spinners should keep handy (unless your wheel doesn’t require it). A good spinner should oil their wheel at least once every few times they spin if not every time. Oiling your wheel is quick and easy. You simply squirt a drop on the different moving (metal) parts and bearings (check your manufacturer for recommended oil placement). This will keep the bearings spinning smoothly against each other and will reduce friction that will most likely cause a really annoying squeak when you spin. If you spin frequently, oiling your wheel is key to having a smooth spin every time.

2. Extra drive bands

Drive bands can easily and quickly wear out/stretch out if you use your wheel often enough. Synthetic polyurethane can last for a long time, but you never know when the day might come that it will decide it’s served enough time. As for string or cotton bands, knots may easily come loose, and it can be hard to tie them a second time or sometimes they just have to be cut off. Frequent use and friction may also cause abrasion on the string and may cause weak spots, eventually leading to breakage. Your drive band is one of the most important components of your wheel, so ensure that you have a spare lying around your craft room.

A quick note on drive bands: I suggest that you keep both a polyurethane and a string drive band around, especially if you like collecting antique wheels or you own a vintage brand wheel. In some situations, the drive band may or may not affect the speed and rate at which the yarn winds onto the bobbin. A heavier drive band may cause your bobbin/flyer to wind more yarn than you can spin. You may find yourself fighting the wheel to keep the yarn in your hands.

This P.S. may not apply to you if you’ve had a wheel for ages with the same drive band. You already know what works and what doesn’t. However, if you’re trying a new-to-you wheel, and you find yourself struggling to spin at the rate your bobbin intakes yarn, try different drive bands to see if that helps you out.

3. Beeswax

For those of you with antique wheels, or who have string drive bands in general, beeswax is a must. Beeswax can make your drive band stronger and longer lasting. It also serves the purpose of adding a stronger grip to your drive band so it spins and moves the parts it needs to move with ease. You can easily keep a tiny chunk of beeswax with you and run it on the drive band at least once or twice every time you sit down to spin. The wax wears off, so constant application may be your best bet.

4. Screwdrivers

Depending on your wheel, screws might play a key role in certain parts of the wheel. For example, on my wheel, two screws help to keep plastic strips that connect the treadles to the wheel itself. These screws may come loose quickly or need to be removed to access and repair certain parts. For my electric spinners, most of the motors are held in place with screws attaching it to the spinner. Motors can, without a doubt, need replacing as they can be a delicate piece of machinery that can blow out or need to be switched out for a stronger, better one. Screwdrivers are most definitely one of, if not the most, valuable tool to keep on hand.

5. Extra bits and bobs

Everyone has different wheel types and styles. Wheels from different companies and wheelmakers may differ in shape, material, size, and parts. This means some parts for your wheel may be hard to come by because they are made specifically for your wheel. Therefore, if and when possible, buy these spare parts so you can replace them when something breaks.

You never know when a part breaks down or has just served its purpose for long enough. This is why I personally like to keep spare bearings, plastic bits, and screws around for my wheel when possible. Because I often take my wheel out and about for demos, I don’t want to risk not being able to spin any longer because the screw fell out of my right treadle!

Recommendations from other spinners

I asked 57 spinners what they think is the most useful thing they keep around and why. Not entirely surprising, spinning wheel oil and spare drive bands tied, with both items each making up 35 percent of the responses – 70 percent of the responses total.

For James P., oil is most important because “A wheel is a machine which has various bushings and bearings. If the bearings are sealed then that’s easy, no maintenance needed, but invariably most bobbins or flyers sit in either bronze, leather, or plastic bearings. To keep those spinning smoothly, quietly and so as they don’t alter my takeup, they really benefit from very regular oiling. Regular oiling (I oil every 30–45 mins) also cleanses the bearings as well as lubricating them to ensure particulates don’t prematurely wear them down. For me it’s the single most important thing I do to maintain my wheel as I spin.”

Here’s what Karen B. said about her drive bands: “My Majacraft Rose has a plastic drive band. I am not sure how easy it would be to make a temporary one out of cotton. That being said, if my drive band is broken, I can’t spin. To be prepared, I have a little case with all these items that I keep in my spinning travel box. It goes with me to all guild meetings, demos, or just a spinning day in the park.”

Screwdrivers also seemed to be a popular choice among the spinners, and Callie W. provided an excellent explanation as to why: “A screwdriver is the only tool that I have used on my wheel. Sometimes the fasteners holding the wheel together get slightly loose, or the screws on the treadles loosen.”

Conclusion

Wheel maintenance is key to good spinning. Maintenance will keep your wheel running smoothly and will leave you to worry about your yarn and not what your wheel’s issues are. Again, this is just a general list of tools, but everyone has their own unique preferences and wheels. Like so many other aspects of our craft, find what works for you. When you have a wheel and method that works for you, you’ll be on your path to success. Happy spinning!

Kai Solon is a young fiber artist who enjoys spending his free time spinning, weaving, and natural dyeing and has also recently dabbled in kilt making. Kai shares his fiber journey on Instagram and YouTube as @FiberByNature. Outside fiber, you’ll find Kai playing his heart out in his high school drumline.