PLY has had a full and fulfilling year! We can hardly believe how much we’ve done!
Firsts
PLY had its first booth at a fiber festival! No, really! In September, we attended DFW Fiber Fest and had a blast!
We also had our first full season of the PLY Spinners Guild. That means we produced 13 episodes featuring 8 different instructors. Our more than 1400 guild members have collectively watched 9,743 hours of guild video content. We’ve also hosted 24 Zoom spin-ins!
We also offered our first ever Holiday Guide! We were pleased to present a variety of new products and top-of-the-line small businesses in this fresh format.
A New Magazine
In 2024, we committed to producing a sister magazine to PLY. With the help of smart and passionate weaver Lisa Graves and the PLY team’s 11 years of experience, WEFT was born! In July, the Kickstarter was a success with more than $100k pledged from 1348 backers. The first issue is slated for Spring 2025!
A New Book
We are excited to announce the release of our third book on December 20: Twist by Michelle Boyd. Twist is destined to be one of the “those” books — the ones that earn a permanent spot on every spinner’s bookshelf. It’s a deep dive into every aspect of Twist and how it affects spinning and yarn. It’s also our first hardback book!
Added 2 New Amazing Team Members
In 2024, PLY brought on two new team members: Jeannie Sanke and Meagan Condon. Jeannie has been with PLY since summer and handles advertising for both PLY and WEFT. Beside being a prolific spinner of chiengora, she has more than twenty years of experience in marketing and advertising in the publishing industry. Meagan joined PLY in October as the technical editor and blog coordinator. Meagan has been teaching and writing for PLY almost since the beginning. She has a background in library & information sciences and social media marketing. We are excited to have their combined experience leaning into the new year!
Worked with Some Amazing Contributors
In 2024, PLY worked with a total of 56 authors and designers to produce four issues (91 published articles!): the Growth Issue, the Reference Issue, the Alpaca Issue, and most recently, the Care Issue. Supporting our vision and goal to give voice to our diverse community, of those 56 contributors, we brought in 17 new-to-PLY authors.
Going Forward
Thank you for joining us on this journey! We look forward to a prosperous year full fiber, creativity, community and fun.
https://plymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/460723989_18477134443013173_601320091806108933_n.jpg16251440Meagan Condonhttps://plymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/plylogo-condensed-pnk-300x164.pngMeagan Condon2024-12-31 09:00:002024-12-19 10:13:23PLY: 2024 YEAR IN REVIEW
The giving season is upon us, and we want to include everyone we can in the PLY Spinners Guild. If you are in a crunch looking for a very last-minute holiday gift for the spinner or soon-to-be-spinner in your life, a guild membership is the perfect answer!
The guild is priced at $85/year or $12/month. We think this is a very good deal for the amount of information and community you will get. It’s also the amount we need to make the guild financially viable with 1500-2500 members (we are currently at the lower end of that). This allows us to pay for the substantial hosting required by so many high-def videos, the charge per member to access the site, along with fairly compensating the teachers, editors, and everyone involved in making the guild work.
However, in the giving spirit, we do not want the guild’s membership dues to be a barrier to anyone who would like to be a part of the guild. We want everyone, and the more diverse and full our community is, the better we all are. To that end, we are making available 100 free guild memberships every 3-month period for spinners (or potential spinners) who are part of an underserved community, are on a fixed income, or just plain can’t currently afford the regular dues. Please sign up here and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
Whether you get a membership for yourself or a loved one, the PLY Spinners Guild looks forward to sharing a new year of community, education, and fun with you.
Proposals due: March 1, 2025 Final work due by: September 1, 2025
Let’s break out those lab coats and safety goggles and try out all those spinning “what ifs” you’ve always wondered about. This issue is about experimentation, and we want you to explore the possibilities within fiber and spinning that you’ve always wanted to examine. This isn’t a time for writing about what you already know – it’s a time to test hypotheses and see what happens.
What parts of spinning have you always wanted to delve into? Maybe you’ve wondered how much ply twist can go into a yarn before it starts to bias or when a singles yarn biases. Or maybe you want to test the strength or abrasion of woolen vs worsted yarns or between different numbers of or types of plies.
Does pre-drafting really make your yarn less consistent? If you tear a batt into rolags, does that have the same effect as making individual rolags? Is it possible to card really long fibers? What’s the minimal length of fiber that makes sense for combing? How far gone can a braid of fiber be before it can’t be spun?
Is spinning woolen yarn really faster than spinning worsted yarn? Does the length of the fiber impact chainplying? Is there a difference in spinning from the tip or the butt of a lock? Does the weight of the spindle actually impact the diameter of the yarn you spin? Is EZ Spin cotton actually easier to spin? How much difference does it make for a worsted yarn if you spin short backward vs short forward? How does plying from both ends of a ball impact the yarn?
Do cabled yarns really make cables pop? Does 2-ply yarn really make more lacey lace? Do chain-plied yarns really abrade quicker because one ply is going in the opposite direction? Is tension setting your yarn actually bad when using it for knitting, crochet, or weaving? Is a hard finish really better for woolen yarn? Does steaming your top actually reactivate the crimp? Does steaming yarns work as well as wet-finishing?
We can’t wait to hear what experiments you want to try out! Proposals are due by March 1, 2025. You’ll hear back from us in April 2025, and final articles are due September 1, 2025.
During this giving season, we’d like to call attention to some of our small business partners. You’ve seen The Foldout Cat featured in the PLY gift guide. Now we’d like for you to meet them as more than just the product they sell.
Q Wirtz, the owner and Chief Feline of the Foldout Cat, started her spinning journey in 2012, when she was still practicing law full-time. At that time, she primarily focused on crochet for her fiber fix. She purchased a Schacht Ladybug but quickly exiled it to the closet when Toxic Perfectionism(™) got the better of her. Within a few years, she’d essentially given up on spinning. In 2014, she left the full-time practice of law and moved to Alabama to be with her partners.
Q explained, “I was both burned out and worn out, and I had absolutely no clear idea of what I wanted to do – or could do – next.”
To keep herself busy, Q began selling her crochet with one of her partners at a weekly maker fair at one of Huntsville’s reclaimed textile factories, Lowe Mill. She adds, “I found myself increasingly recharged and inspired by the constant exposure to assertive creativity, and in relatively short order I applied for and was granted a studio space with the collective… In early 2017 I took the terrifying step of giving my creative endeavors a business name – naming is a powerful act! – and the Foldout Cat came formally into being.”
In 2018, something extraordinary happened. “That November, I went to a spinning retreat hosted by friends, attending for the company but dutifully toting my Ladybug and a bit of theoretically easy-to-spin roving along for the look of the thing. I sat down next to someone who’d taught spinning for the Haus of Yarn in Nashville, stuck my fluff into the leader loop she tied on for me, sighed deeply and put my feet on the treadles … and something just clicked. I went through the roving I’d brought with me in the first hour after that silent revelation and spent the rest of the weekend spinning anything and everything the other attendees were willing to throw my way. They were delightfully generous, as fiber folk often are.”
The Foldout Cat had a new direction: spinning and enabling.
“Given the amount of time I spend teaching spinning/talking about spinning/actually spinning these days, I surprise myself sometimes when I remember that I only started spinning six years ago!” Q adds, “I love teaching anyone who wants to sit down and fiber with me – but my favorite is working with folks at the beginning of their experience with a given fiber-art form. I like giving people permission to play, and to experiment – and above all, as they’re learning a new skill (or acquiring a new tool for an existing creative toolbox), to give themselves the grace in that learning that they would give a beloved friend.”
The Foldout Cat’s Goals
Goal #1: to support myself, financially and psychoemotionally.
Goal #2: to spread love and respect for fiber arts of all kinds.
Goal #3: to empower everyone I meet through my business – students, customers, fiber-adjacent spice and partners – to believe that they have a creative, artistic aspect, that it deserves to be recognized and honored, and that doing so will enrich their lives.
Goal #4: to keep putting beauty into this world–especially now, especially in these tumultuous days – and to help others to do the same.
If you are looking for a last-minute fiber gift for the discerning spinner in your life, consider working with Q to create a custom CatBatt! If you have ever seen The Foldout Cat at one of the many festivals and fiber retreats where they vend, you’ve probably had the pleasure of seeing her one-of-a-kind batt buffet where customers get to choose their fibers from a plethora of options and Q will blend a custom batt right then and there.
She extends this service to her website. “Right now, online customers have two options there: they can send me an email and I’ll work with them remotely to build what they need or they can buy a gift certificate and use it in person at any of the 15+ shows to which I travel each year.” Design a batt for a loved one (or for yourself! You deserve some holiday fluff, too!) or give a gift certificate that allows your friends and family to design their own CatBatt.
Even if you don’t have the opportunity to grab a CatBatt now, you’ll have plenty of opportunities in the upcoming year. Q explains, “In 2024 I had the honor of being part of 18 events, from conferences like Convergence to huge festivals like Rhinebeck to intimate workshop series like the one I got to do at a good friend’s beautiful home studio in Georgia, and including the first-ever Alabama Fiber Festival in early November. My 2025 schedule’s on track to be even more packed – and I couldn’t be more grateful for all of the teaching and vending opportunities that presents.” Check out her website for a list of events where you can find the batt buffet in person this upcoming year!
https://plymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/batts-09-20.jpg8901256Meagan Condonhttps://plymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/plylogo-condensed-pnk-300x164.pngMeagan Condon2024-12-17 09:00:002024-12-12 10:15:55Small Business Feature: The Foldout Cat
When we think about fiber tools, we think about tens of thousands of years of progress and the history of innovation. We imagine the slow roll of progress bringing us to today, where we’ve obviously got everything figured out, right? This is as good as it gets! After all, we’re working in the slow arts, and we don’t need more than a stick to make some yarn. Some of us take joy in being able to prove that all we need is a stick!
Well, sometimes we like to make it a little easier on ourselves. Sometimes it isn’t about proving we can so much as getting the work done. The truth is innovation is happening every day in our fiber world. We have a strong community of toolmakers who are constantly looking to improve the tools we use. One of those toolmakers is Baruch with Bam Fiber Works.
Bam Fiber Works has designed an incredible new feature for a workshop staple and is now offering a self-cleaning drum carder. You read that right! SELF-CLEANING. This patent-pending device is already on backorder through January 2025 as of the writing of this article.
The project to develop an improved drum carder started in 2016. “We wanted to create a drum carder that offered cool features that weren’t already offered in another drum carder on the market. We couldn’t quite put a finger on it, though,” Baruch told me. “The feedback we got again and again was to make the carder easier to clean.”
I personally felt that feedback in my soul. It had recently taken over an hour to deconstruct and deep clean the drum carder in my own workshop; work that needed to be done but that I took no pleasure from. I could have spent that time spinning… or at least catching up on some good television.
Baruch began by testing the concept of some sort of doffing cloth that could be used to remove fiber from the drum. Following many prototypes, he still wasn’t happy with how it performed. Then the magic happened. After a brainstorming session with his brother, Baruch discovered that a drum mounted on two pieces of scrap wood did a superior job. And he didn’t stop there. He wanted to make sure that his tool wouldn’t cause additional wear and tear on the carder itself. “We did over 1000 test cleanings. We filmed as we did it,” he said.
On top of the self-cleaning drum, the Bam Fiber Works drum carder features a number of unique features. Everything – clamps, doffing hook, cleaning brush – all store conveniently in the front tray of the drum carder. It has a magnetic pin lock system that allows pulleys, drums, and handle to be quickly removed, making it “crazy easy to clean.” And parts are designed to be used interchangeable amongst their entire product line.
“We wanted to take the unenjoyable parts out of carding,” Baruch added. “Take away the ‘I dread this’ part so that carding becomes more enjoyable on its own.”
That’s not all. While it is not yet available, Baruch and his team have a patent pending on a handheld version of the drum cleaner that could work with any drum carder. “There’s still a lot of testing to do,” he said. “Other brands have a variety of types of carding cloth in different weights. We want to make sure it works well and doesn’t damage people’s existing equipment.”
We in the fiber community have that to look forward to! In the meantime, readers can get on the pre-order list for this self-cleaning drum carder through the Bam Fiber Works website.
https://plymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/thumbnail_Main-Photo-Zoomed-In.png19201920Meagan Condonhttps://plymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/plylogo-condensed-pnk-300x164.pngMeagan Condon2024-12-12 09:00:002024-12-09 19:44:55Innovation at Bam Fiber Works
The beginning of the year is the perfect time for planning your crafting year – all the things you want to accomplish in your creative life before the next calendar year arrives. The first thing I want you to consider is your Why.
Why do you want to plan your crafting year? We all have different reasons. Perhaps you want to prepare handcrafted gifts for a family event or holiday. Maybe you’re ready to replace parts of your wardrobe with unique, handspun pieces. Or perhaps you want to improve certain skills to become a more proficient spinner. Understanding your Why will help you plan and adjust your year. Plan your year so your crafting reflects your Why and maintain flexibility for any life changes.
Spinning is a unique hobby because the end product, yarn, is just the raw material for another textile craft. As a multicraftual maker, I include using beautiful handspun yarn in my crafting year. As a spinner who enjoys working from raw fleece, my crafting includes picking and scouring fleece, fiber preparation, and sometimes dyeing.
Make a wish list
I use two tools for planning my projects: a wish list and make nine. Grab a notebook, pencil, and your favorite beverage. If you already follow a bullet journal practice, as described by Katherine Mead in the “Journaling to Grow” article, reserve a place in your journal for your crafting/creative wish list. This allows you to add items as they come to you and review them when planning your year.
Some examples of a wish list:
Create a winter wardrobe for me
Create a summer wardrobe for a significant other
Spin a collection of 2-ply handspun yarns in the same weight (sport, DK, worsted) for use in various projects
Create warp and weft yarn for two stoles
Spin the box of summer dyeing fiber
Spin full commercial hand-dyed braids (fractal, gradient, rill, raindrop, and marled)
Spin complementary colors for a colorwork sweater to be knit with commercial yarn
Spin two braids of fiber for an accessory
Become proficient with the dizzing-off-the-hand-carder technique using five different commercial braids or wool breeds
Prep fiber and spin the pound/half a kilo of scoured fleece from last summer
Spin with my spindles at least 15 minutes every day
Practice fiber preparation with the Lock Pop and drum carder
Scour one or two pails of raw fleece from the last fleece auction
Spin through the Fiber Club braids received every three months
Adding items to your wish list doesn’t mean you’ll tackle them all this year. This is just the first step.
Choose a theme
Along with your Why, choose a theme for your crafting year, such as His Wardrobe, My Summer Wardrobe, or Intentional Learning from Stash – whatever resonates with you.
Draw a grid with nine spaces and title it with your chosen theme. Fill your make nine grid using your Why and wish list to guide your decisions. Here’s an example of my planning for the next 12 months:
I want to spin beautiful yarns compatible with colorwork projects, improve my proficiency with fiber tools like the drum carder and the Lock Pop, and keep practicing my fiber prep skills with hand cards and blending boards. My make nine projects align with these interests and the crafting I enjoy. Note that I’ve included three works-in-progress. As spinners know, our craft is slow, and projects often carry over from the previous year. I also left one square open for any inspiring project or make-along I encounter during the year.
Find your tasks
Filling the make nine grid with attractive projects is satisfying, but it won’t become a reality if you keep it tucked away. New projects will fill your time if you let them.
List all the tasks needed to make your crafting list a reality. Identify the roadblocks for each project. For example, scouring fleece or fiber dyeing may be seasonal tasks best done in warmer months. Account for fiber prep time before spinning the singles or sampling time if that’s a roadblock for you. Add each task to a checklist you can mark off as you complete them.
Once I have my grid and checklist, I print the page and add it to my bullet journal. You might choose to stick it in your crafting area. Place it somewhere visible where you can check off tasks as you tackle them.
Craft your year!
For critical roadblock tasks, I schedule them on my calendar as I would a work meeting, ensuring I reserve time for them. I also add monthly tasks to my journal to stay on track with project progress. I enjoy photographing the process and sharing moments on social media. Reviewing these photos later inspires me and helps me remember successful processes.
Two or three months before the end of the year, I reassess my crafting progress and celebrate my successes. I also reflect on any projects left unfinished and consider whether I was too ambitious, failed to account for roadblocks, or got distracted by new patterns or spin-alongs. I include this reflection in planning the upcoming year to better align with how I like to spend my crafting time.
Planning my crafting year helps me be intentional with my projects, crafting garments that complement my daily life and ensuring I incorporate learning into my making. I hope what I’ve shared helps you start planning your crafting year too!
Greta lives in the Greater Vancouver area, Canada. She enjoys sampling and planning her crafting time. She loves being the Education Program Coordinator for the School of SweetGeorgia, where she is lucky to make a career of her passion. She shares life with her husband, five kids and a house full of wool, good food, coffee and tea. She may be found at the SOS forums, knitting, spinning, or walking with her family.
Words and photos by Greta Cornejo
https://plymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Planning-your-Crafting-Year-vertical-scaled.jpg19202560Guest Bloggerhttps://plymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/plylogo-condensed-pnk-300x164.pngGuest Blogger2024-12-10 09:00:002024-12-09 19:47:37Planning Your Crafting Year
On a dusty road, halfway between Denver and Fort Collins, sits the thirty-five acre farm of Davis Family Livestock, with stunning views of Long’s Peak to the west and the piercing blue sky overhead. My focus, however, is much closer to the ground: on the new lambs chewing on my shoelaces. Affectionately called “the world’s cutest sheep,” the Valais Blacknose are the showstoppers of the Davis farm. The breed originated in the Valais region of Switzerland, and though endangered, it has grown in popularity though Europe, Australia, and the United States in recent years. While many breeds of sheep tend to be wary of people other than their shepherds, the Valais eagerly demand attention from everyone.
The Davis family began breeding Valais Blacknose sheep in a roundabout way. A friend of Anne’s had told her about a British show with the cutest sheep, and it piqued Anne’s interest. After much research and discussion, Rob and Anne decided that the Valais Blacknose sheep would be the perfect animal to start their farm because the Valais have to be marketed differently than other breeds. Due to their rarity, newness, and novelty, one doesn’t need to run thousands of heads on massive acreage to make money. Plus, at the time, no one else in Colorado was raising the breed.
“There’s no mystery on how to raise sheep,” Anne told me. “We’ve been doing it for thousands of years.” But breeding Valais Blacknose does come with some unique challenges. The USDA does not allow the live import of sheep or goats. The only way to introduce new breeds of sheep to the U.S. is through imported semen and embryos, which go through rigorous genetic testing. Additionally, breeders want semen from rams that meet the Swiss standards for size, quality of fiber, and coloring. It takes a long time to meet all these requirements. In 2016, New Zealand was the first country to export Valais Blacknose semen to the U.S., with embryos following later. A couple years ago, the UK began exporting semen, and in 2024 began exporting embryos as well.
Then it’s a matter of time and careful breeding. By the fifth generation of lambs, both ewes and rams are U.S. purebred Valais Blacknose sheep. The Davis family began their breed-up program with several Scottish Blackface sheep, and some first- and second-generation Valais sheep. They were purchased from a woman in Idaho who had started the program on her farm but had to stop due to some personal health challenges. The Davis family bought her sheep and continued the work she started. Anne told me that the two of them are friends to this day.
Rob and Anne Davis purchased their 35-acre farm in 2020, the same year they began breeding Valais Blacknose sheep. Both come from agriculture backgrounds, Rob from a ranch in Colorado, and Anne from a fruit and vegetable farm in Oregon, and when Rob retired in 2017, the family began considering their next steps. Rob has a PhD in Agriculture Economics and Anne holds a master’s degree in Plant Pathology, but both wanted something more tangible to leave as a legacy for their two children. Their daughter Maddie has a passion for livestock and plans to take over the farm in the future.
Higher education has been a significant part of the life of the Davis family, and they highly value the role that education plays in communities and relationships. Tours of the Davis farm are always free because Rob and Anne want their farm to be as accessible as possible. During the 2024 lambing season, they gave several tours a week, with lambs being delivered during a couple of the tours! Their tours typically begin with a walk around the farm to meet all the animals. In addition to the Valais Blacknose sheep, the Davis farm currently has Scottish Blackface sheep, Rambouillet sheep, a guard llama and alpaca, and several horses. The tour wraps up in the barn where Anne has put together an in-depth display of the fleece-to-product process. The display includes raw fleeces, a skirting table, handspinning tools, a dye pot, looms, and felting tools. I’ve led several handspinning demonstrations for tours, which allows visitors to watch and learn to spin yarn from Valais wool. In 2024, the Davises also bought an authentic sheep herder wagon from the early 1900s to add to the tour!
Anne and Rob want their farm to be a resource for people of all backgrounds. They also mentor other breed-up programs. Anyone who buys sheep from the Davis family and has questions about breeding is welcome to give Anne a call, and she will help in any way she can. They are transparent with everything they do. “This is a small enough breed where we need to be supporting and working together,” Anne told me. “We need to be cooperating instead of competing.” The Davis family was the first to bring the Valais Blacknose breed to Colorado and produced the first purebred Valais ram in the state. They are proud to have led the way and now get to celebrate the success of other breed-up programs in Colorado.
The farm invites CSU vet students to gain experience by watching procedures, and in the summer of 2024, the Davis family welcomed their first intern: a local high schooler interested in studying large animal veterinary science in college. Her work on the farm will also gain her school credit, so the program benefits both the Davis family and students interested in exploring agricultural vocations. There is always plenty of work to be done on the farm, and while Rob and Anne’s children, Roy and Maddie, help out when they are available, both currently have other jobs away from the farm.
The last time Anne and I met for coffee, I asked her about the biggest challenges in running their farm. She didn’t hesitate. “The physical demands. Especially the heat.” The summer heat on the high plains isn’t just difficult for farmers, it can also be hard on the sheep. Colorado is so dusty that the dust irritates the sheep’s lungs and can lead to dust pneumonia. The Davises monitor their sheep closely to prevent pneumonia. To breed and raise healthy sheep, the farmer needs to be familiar with the environmental and climate factors that affect their livestock. But Anne isn’t discouraged by these challenges. To the Davis family, being close to the land and having a purpose is incredibly rewarding for them. The family gets to see new life and watch their animals grow and thrive. They get to see the joy on the faces of young children visiting a farm for the first time and the memories that are brought back for older visitors who haven’t been on a farm in years. Anne told me she especially loves when people come back for return visits. “If you think we are cool enough that you want to take your time to come back, that’s pretty special.”
Rowena Zuercher is a freelance editor and researcher who dedicates most of her free time to fiber and textiles. She lives in Aurora, Colorado with her husband Ryan and their turtle, ball python, and aquarium of fish. You can learn about her many heritage craft explorations on Instagram @homesaponified.
Words and photos by Rowena Zuercher (except Davis family photo, which is from Anne Davis)
https://plymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/author-with-valais-lamb-scaled.jpg25601920Guest Bloggerhttps://plymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/plylogo-condensed-pnk-300x164.pngGuest Blogger2024-12-05 09:00:002024-11-24 08:22:24The “World’s Cutest Sheep” in Colorado
In 1997, the first edition of Knitting with Dog Hair by Kendall Crolius made its way onto shelves. I remember my horrified fascination (amisplaced psychological reaction) the first time I picked it up with all my preconceived notions about what could and should be spun. This book was an absolute eye-opener for me, and it has helped me cope with the loss of some of my furry family members!
Now on its third revision and printing, you can get the updated book just in time for the giving season. To celebrate its latest release on December 3, I had the thrilling opportunity to interview Kendall.
Thank you for taking the time to share a little bit about yourself and your book. There are many in the PLY community who have benefited from your work.
Q: Before you were the world’s leading authority on dog hair knitting, how did you first start spinning?
A: My beloved husband gave me a spinning workshop for my birthday – at a fiber arts store in our neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY. My spinning teacher mentioned “you don’t have to limit yourself to sheep wool – you can spin anything, even dog hair.” I had a sheddy Golden Retriever at the time and started spinning her fuzz.
Q: What drove you to write about working with dog hair?
A: Writing about it wasn’t my idea! I had dear friends, Barbara Binswanger and Jim Charlton, who were book packagers. They had a Great Pyrenees, Ollie, and brought me Ollie fuzz every time we got together. One weekend, I decided to spin it to make them mittens and ended up with enough yarn to make a sweater for Barbara and a vest for Jim. Jim said, “This would be a great book.” And great visionary that I am, I said, “No it wouldn’t – that’s ridiculous.” Jim and Barb wrote it up as a book proposal and pitched it for TEN YEARS before St. Martins decided to publish the original edition.
Q: What are the benefits of working with dog hair and which breeds are the easiest to spin?
A: The most important benefit is having a garment from a beloved pet. For many breeds, the yarn itself is superior to wool. Any dog that sheds is an ideal candidate. My preferred breeds are Samoyed, Great Pyrenees, and Golden Retriever but that’s because I have specific dogs I love.
Q: Before you were a writer, you had an incredible career leading the G100 Leadership Network, and before that, in businesses like Forbes and McCann-Erickson. Can you tell me a little bit about your career and how that impacted your choices when writing Knitting with Dog Hair?
A: This is great question! My career and my interest in dog knitting don’t have a lot of intersections. I can say that writing this book has solidified my reputation as an eccentric and a creative thinker. I spent the last 15 years of my business career running a program that helped prepare very senior executives to be the next CEO of their company. When the participants googled me, of course the first thing that popped up was Knitting with Dog Hair – it was a great icebreaker when I onboarded new participants. The leadership lesson is be who you are and bring all of you to your business career.
Q: What is your favorite part of the book to write?
A: I have loved writing about the people who have created cottage industries focused on spinning yarn from beloved pets. With this edition, it was much easier to connect with artisans simply because of the internet. I have formed real friendships with the fabulous people who have adopted this craft.
Q: You are now on the third revision of your book. What has the journey through this all looked like for you?
A: I am so gratified to have connected with people who have embraced this craft. There are so many people who have created businesses spinning dog yarn for dog lovers who want to create a memento of a beloved pet.
For those who have read the book before, what updates should readers keep their eyes out for?
I have updated the list of “Spinners Guide to Dog Breeds” with data on breeds that were not recognized in the nineties, including the “designer dogs” like LabraDoodles that were not included in the original edition.
For more than twenty-five years, Kendall Crolius has inspired us to boldly experiment with pet fiber. Her unique insights have expanded the domain of fiber artists everywhere and helped create a niche community of spinners who help dog lovers celebrate their furry family members.
The revised copy of Knitting with Dog Hair is now available. If you don’t already have a copy, now is a great time to pick one up!
https://plymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/81H9yDn2-lL._SL1500_.jpg15001167Meagan Condonhttps://plymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/plylogo-condensed-pnk-300x164.pngMeagan Condon2024-12-03 09:00:002024-11-25 11:40:11Knitting with Dog Hair: New Edition!
I am incredibly hard on my tools. By that I mean I put hours of use into them. And I make sure I take care of my tools so I can put even more hours on them!
One part I replace frequently is the drive band. For cotton drive bands, my rule is to replace the drive band after eight hours of use. The drive band stretches over time, loses its elasticity, and can abrade.
The photo to the left is the drive band I just removed from my Ashford Elizabeth II. If I’m honest, this drive band saw a little more than eight hours of use. You can clearly see it is frayed and at the end of its life.
When a drive band gets to this point, it is prone to slipping and snapping.
Cotton drive bands have their own benefits. They are easy and cheap to source. A ball of cotton kitchen twine will keep you stocked on drive bands for years. They are also simple to replace by either knotting them or stitching the ends together.
Remember, though, I am hard on tools. With my usage, I change cotton drive bands out at least once per week. I needed something a little longer-lasting. I decided to swap my cotton drive bands for polyurethane bands.
Many wheel manufacturers have designed their newer wheels (castle-style wheels in particular) to use polyurethane bands. There is a good chance that you’ve already got a poly band on your wheel. Vintage wheels or more “classic” wheel designs are not often equipped with a poly band. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be.
I use my Elizabeth II in double-drive mode. I kept this in mind when selecting a poly band. I settled on a 2mm band, which is thinner than what is usually provided by wheel manufacturers.
Once I cut off my cotton drive band, I used it to measure out the correct length of poly band. I threaded the poly band on my wheel just as I would with a cotton band. The trick to polyurethane is in the join.
To join the two ends of poly band, I used a lighter to melt the two ends, then pushed them together. Before the plastic fully cooled, I took a folded piece of paper and rolled the join back and forth between the paper. This rounded the join so that it would pass through my wheel smoothly.
The resulting join is strong and flexible.
Like cotton drive bands, these have their benefits and drawbacks. The poly band lasts years instead of weeks. However, it won’t work well with every wheel. Depending on how deep the wheel groove is and the finish of the wood, the poly band might slip out. It is more likely to jump the groove in a double-drive setup, especially if the groove is narrow. The two bands compete for space in a way that cotton bands don’t. This is one of the reasons I chose a thinner band.
The poly band also tends to have more grab than the cotton band and can create stronger uptake, which may throw off your default spin.
Twenty hours of spin-time in, though, and it is serving me well.
https://plymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/PXL_20241117_155026660.MP_-scaled.jpg25601928Meagan Condonhttps://plymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/plylogo-condensed-pnk-300x164.pngMeagan Condon2024-11-28 09:00:002024-11-24 07:19:53Swapping to a Polyurethane Drive Band
We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.
Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.
Essential Website Cookies
These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.
Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.
We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.
We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.
Google Analytics Cookies
These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.
If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:
Other external services
We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.
Google Webfont Settings:
Google Map Settings:
Google reCaptcha Settings:
Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:
Other cookies
The following cookies are also needed - You can choose if you want to allow them:
