Spinning “Lopi” Singles

Guest blogger Beth Abbott is here to share with us her experiences spinning “Lopi” style singles yarns and using them in her knitting. Follow along with her exploration of the history of these yarns and her efforts to engineer a way to spin them for herself. ———————————————————————————————- When I started my study on Icelandic fleece, […]

Keeping Track While Spinning and Lazy

There are a lot of different ways to keep track of your yarn for consistency while spinning. I like the lazy ways. Here are four ways to keep track that I use when I spin.   On the left, WPI gauge: I love this one from Nancy’s Knit Knacks. I find I get a more […]

Scouring

It’s January and around my house that usually means a lot of wool washing is going to happen. I have 8 teaching appointments this year and almost everyone chooses classes that require unprocessed wool. That’s because around 75% of my class list consists of classes that are about processing wool from raw. I love it. […]

Use Your Yarn

I teach a lot of classes and I am always surprised at how many spinners I meet who don’t use their handspun yarns for projects. They give me lots of reasons for it. (1) They don’t think they have enough yarn for a project or (2) they don’t have enough matching skeins or (3) they think […]

PLY Registration Rocked!

As the clocks clicked over to 10:00, everything went live. I was nervous that I was throwing a party that nobody would come to (highschool was a tough time for everyone, right?) but at 10:01 we had 2 orders! The guides worked! Those first 2 spinners went through there like the wind! Or like somebody posted […]

A Little More About Consistency

Last month I talked about consistency and gave you a couple of my favorite tips but I left out the one thing I do at the start of every project. I make a sample card. I know that lots of people love those spinner’s control cards with the diffeerent line thicknesses to compare your yarn […]

Consistency

I love a smooth, consistent yarn. I do. I love how that kind of yarn feels and drapes. I love to spin them too. I love the rhythm of it. I’ve spent almost my entire spinning career working toward getting my yarns to be more consistent and learning what helps to make that happen. The […]

Proper Chairs

Don’t ask me about what chair to sit in when you spin. Don’t ask me about posture. I got nuthin’. I will say that when you are learning to spin it is important to sit in a chair that is a height that allows you to reach the treadles. I think one with a back […]

Thin? It’s All Relative

Our latest issue of PLY is all about spinning thin yarn. When I think about thin yarn I think about that finer-than-fine yarn, that’s really thread, some spinners can spin. I say some spinners because so far I’m not one of them.   As I read through this issue I realized that thin is relative. […]