We couldn’t fit it in the print issue! – Page 11

Prepping Fiber for a Large Project

February 13, 2020/in Frontpage Article, Spinning, We couldn't fit it in the print issue!/by Guest Blogger

Words and Photos by Anne Schwarz I’m making my first sweater from scratch. This is new for me. Usually I spin a pound of this, a 4-oz braid of that, enjoying the pretty colors or trying my hands at a technique or a yarn design idea, and then I make yet another hat or scarf. […]

Handmaking Spinning Tools

February 6, 2020/in Frontpage Article, Spinning, We couldn't fit it in the print issue!/by Guest Blogger

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 […]

Guilded: Creating Community Through Cloth

January 23, 2020/in Frontpage Article, Spinning, We couldn't fit it in the print issue!/by Guest Blogger

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

January 16, 2020/in Frontpage Article, Spinning, We couldn't fit it in the print issue!/by Guest Blogger

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

January 9, 2020/in Frontpage Article, Spinning, We couldn't fit it in the print issue!/by Guest Blogger

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 […]

Dyeing Cloth with Mud

December 19, 2019/in Frontpage Article, Spinning, We couldn't fit it in the print issue!/by Guest Blogger

Words and Photos by Suzanne Correira I’ve been experimenting with using mud for coloring cloth ever since I took a class from Judy Dominic in the early 2000s. She studied African mud dyeing extensively. Then I started reading about the Japanese technique of Dorozomo – also mud dyeing. I fell in love with the fun […]

Chasing Cloth

December 12, 2019/in Frontpage Article, Spinning, We couldn't fit it in the print issue!/by Guest Blogger

Words and Photos by Melanie Duarte As spinners we are always chasing cloth. The yarn we create may be beautiful on its own and it might hang out longer in our stash than we intended it to, but there probably was a goal when we set out to spin it. More often than not, that […]

Spinning for Lace: A Test

December 5, 2019/in Frontpage Article, Spinning, We couldn't fit it in the print issue!/by Guest Blogger

Words and Photos by Barbara Bundick My favorite default yarn is, to put it mildly, frog hair. I spin fine. Lucky for me, I also love to knit lace. The 2 go together quite handily. I’ve heard a number of old wives’ tales about the best yarn for lace knitting. First, 2-ply yarn is supposedly […]

Travel with a Suspended Spindle – On Foot, By Car, or By Airplane

July 25, 2019/in Frontpage Article, Spinning, We couldn't fit it in the print issue!/by Jacey Faulkner