PLY article index

Author uses research on the growing sustainable fashion industry to suggest examples for considerations to make spinning more sustainable.

Maintenance of your wheel can help prevent a lot of issues that might happen while you are spinning. This article presents a rundown of what you need to do to keep your wheel — and you — spinning happily. It discusses handling, cleaning, oiling, and taking care of flyers, drive bands, and brake bands. Includes a checklist of items to keep handy for wheel care.

This article discusses ways to give your spindles the longest possible life in your possession and covers preventative (storage, preventing falls, transporting, controlling environment, and conditioning) and restorative (hook damage, tip damage, whorl and shaft damage) spindle care.

Spinning can be hard on your hands, and at some point you may find you need to adapt your spinning techniques to help you avoid pain or injury in the future. Topics covered include adapting fiber prep, practicing stretching techniques, adapting your drafting method (the method discussed is a way to avoid having to pinch your thumb and forefinger together), using adaptive gear, and easting the aches.

This article explains the process of turning Tunis locks into combed top, using a hackle and a hand comb, with dizzing as the final step

Article explaining the spinning choices made and yarn stats for the Keep Your Feel Warm Socks pattern that follows. Tunis wool, 2-ply yarn at 11.5-12 WPI.

Pattern to knit a pair of socks using Tunis wool, DK weight yarn. These socks are knitting from cuff to toe, with a standard heel flap and heel turn, and with a graduated wedge toe.

Author’s personal journey through chronic pain and finding crochet and other fiber arts. Includes information about how fiber arts provides self-care and encouragement to cultivate self-care practices.

Author’s experience in Romania and teaching handspinning and handweaving classes to help preserve their traditions by taking small steps toward rebuilding the knowledge, awareness, and skills required to continue the weaving and spinning traditions in Romania.

By learning to move well in the studio, your spinning practice can help strengthen your body over time. This article focuses on some aspects to consider when checking in with your body as well as some specific hand stretches you can perform.

A little care at the beginning of the spinning process can make it a whole lot easier to care for the finished textile. It can mean the difference between a sweater that lasts two washings and a family heirloom. The author makes samples of various kinds of yarns and abrades them to see how well they hold up: worsted-spun yarn, woolen-spun yarn, underspun and underplied yarn, yarn with neps, yarn made from fiber with different staple lengths, and yarn made from a blend of fibers. The article explains various considerations to make while prepping fiber and spinning yarn to add stability and longevity.

Articles discusses caring for handspun projects, including routine maintenance and what to do when disaster strike: washing, drying, repairing damage, cleaning stains, removing pills, and managing pests.

The author thought she was allergic to wool and could never use it, but discovered that in some instances, she can use wool. In sharing her own experiences and experiments with finding wool she can work with, she offers tips and advice to other who might be facing a similar sensitivity to wool.

Readers share their sest self-care tips for a pain-free experience for all aspects of spinning (e.g., washing fleece, standing at the drum carder, working with combs, or spinning for hours).

Pattern for mitts created using a parallelogram shape that wraps around your hand and snakes down your arm.

Explains how the yarn for the following project was spun, with the author explaining the choices not just to create the yarn but also to create the yarn in a way that will help you care for your body.

Article assesses the environmental impact of natural dyes, acid dyes, and fiber reactive dyes, discussing exhausting and wastewater, water use, and dye production and manufacture.

For a non-Korean-speaking fiber artist, searching the internet for Korean traditional textile crafts can feel like running into a digital brick wall. This article traces the author’s research and experience into these traditional Korean textile crafts such as natural dyeing, hand stitching, bojagi and jogakbo, and nubi.

Discusses how someone in a city environment can participate in a fibershed, which is a regional fiber system to develop a local soil-to-closet pipeline where textiles are grown, processed, dyed, designed, produced, and worn within a set geographic region.

Cardigan designed to be a visual catalog of your memories of yarns you’ve spun. Add a specific stripe to remember a trip, a friend, a making experience. Written for 10 sizes, with cropped and hip length versions, using 2-ply DK to worsted weight yarn in a variety of colors and fibers.

Explains fiber prep used for a project that accounts for what fibers are easiest to spin, what techniques cause the least amount of fatigue, and what equipment can help ease the amount of work.

PLY readers give you tips and tricks on how they spin alpaca.

Describes what to look for when purchasing an alpaca fleece. Topics include primary and secondary fibers, what to look for while layout out the fleece, comparing against black and white paper, and comparing the samples to a standard.

Alpaca can be tricky when trying to find the right balance between not enough twist to make it a stable yarn and too much twist making the yarn stiff and ropey. This article discusses how to find the point where everything is just right to create a soft but sturdy yarn that does this fabulous fiber justice.