This is some lovely angora roving I bought at SPA in February. I haven’t tried spinning angora roving before but this is really a dream to spin and I will have to get more next year. Sadly, I cannot remember or find the vendor’s name but I remember it was a really good price and I bought a big fat bag of it. I’m making very good progress on the yarn for Pat’s hat!
I’ve been sick with some respiratory thing or another since the end of February and it only seems to be getting worse. This means I’m not doing much in the sewing room (lest I sew my finger!) and am not up to complicated knitting much either. Spinning is something I can almost always do. We didn’t have much bitter cold this winter but the one week we did, one of the local librarians fell head over heels for my handspun angora hat and asked if I might make one for her. Towards that end I’ve been working on yarn for that here and there. It’s a two color hat so I have some lovely tan angora already spun up that will be paired with two plies of green merino, yet to be spun, and pictured here is one of two plies of cormo/Romney (aka a sheep named Tarragon) that will get plied with a white angora singles.
Varitek is off the wheel and boy did this yarn turn out nicely! It’s a mohair Coopworth blend and I ended up with 614 yards/100grams of delicious laceweight. There are still shares of the next round of yarn and roving available over at the Gilead Fiber Farm etsy shop.
I’m headed up to Gilead Fiber Farm on the weekend to see the new triplet Finn lambs and I’m on a mission to finish up one more skein of yarn to take along for show and tell. After seeing how beautifully Varitek spun up, I thought I would try a laceweight with my Seymour share (kid mohair, Finn lamb) for a shawl. This is naturally much slower going than the heftier yarns I just finished. Here’s the first bobbin all spun up and waiting for a mate.
I’m currently spinning some lovely angora from a rabbit named Ricky. This will hopefully become part of a hat for one of the librarians I help out a couple mornings a week at my local library. I’ll ply this with a couple strands of cormo before I am done.
The shetland roving from Gilead Fiber Farm was a delight to spin up. It was probably the fastest yarn I’ve ever spun, start to finish. I filled two bobbins in an afternoon and plied it the next morning. It washed up brighter and stunningly lustrous and so very soft. I’m not sure what I’ll make with it but I definitely want to get some more. EDIT: I had two unlabeled rovings that I brought home from SPA and it seems this may actually be Varitek. Confirmation will come in a week when I visit the farm. This will be great news as there is plenty of Varitek left.
I never fail to come home from SPA ready to spin spin spin. This is some Shetland roving from miss Susie (the sheep) who is sweet as pie and much less shy after having a lamb last spring. Riley thinks Susie smells delightful!
First, the facts:
Title: The Spinner’s Book of Yarn Designs: Techniques for Creating 80 Yarns
Author: Sarah Anderson
Published by: Storey Publishing, 2013
Pages: 255
Type: Spinning
Chapters:
Introduction: Endlessly Fascinating Fiber
1. Spinning Basics
2. Singles for Plying
3. Stand-Alone Singles
4. Spiral Yarns
5. Opposing Plies
6. Boucles
7. Cable Yarns
8. Crepe Yarns
9. Core Yarns
10. Novelty Yarns
The In-Depth Look:
The author begins, “Fiber and the arts that use fiber have held a lifelong fascination for me. My favorite things about yarn and the making of yarn are the endless variations and possibilities. For the past few years, I’ve been collecting ideas for different yarn constructions and spinning skeins that represent some of these variations. These skeins have become my personal yarn library. This collection goes with me to workshops and classes to be use as examples not only of what we are learning in the class but also as examples of what can be done beyond plying two strands together. … That my friends, is what this book is all about. It’s meant to give spinners inspiration and a sense of what is possible with wool and wheel.”
And from there? This book just takes off into … well, an exploration of possibilities. Even though she states that it’s not meant to be a book that teaches spinning outright, she begins with a really thorough look at the basics. Twist, direction, fiber prep, carding, combing, color blending, drafting … all those fundamental things that are oh, so useful to know. (You might prefer to start with commercially-prepared fiber, but why should you have to?)
But then the fun begins, and she starts exploring different types of yarn construction, ways of plying, fun things to do to make straight-forward, bread-and-butter yarns to flight-of-fancy ones that are just outright fun to do.
All of this … these techniques for 80 different kinds of yarns … is packaged in a beautiful hardcover with excellent photos, a clear layout, and tips. So many tips and sidebars, like the ongoing “great sock yarn experiment” tests for different techniques, or examples of the way certain yarns look when they’re woven. This is one of those books that is so chock-full of information, you can’t read it all at once. In fact, it would be best used propped next to your spinning wheel, experimenting with your own fiber as you go.
That, actually, is something they obviously thought of, because one of the great extras with this book is a series of 64 reference cards tucked into a pocket at the back, meant to be easily portable instructions that you can tuck into a bag or keep by your wheel for reference.
I need to go back and really read all the sections I skimmed over in preparation for writing this review–because it’s one of those kinds of books. It looks like a straight-forward reference that you can dip into and skim (and it is), but you’ll get even more out of it with a long, slow, careful read. Unlike some spinning books, there are no patterns here for what to do with your yarn once you’ve spun it (sidebar suggestions notwithstanding), just lots of detail about how to explore this ancient world of creating thread.
You can find this wonderful book at Amazon.com.
Want to see bigger pictures? Click here.
This review copy was kindly donated by Storey Publishing. Thank you!
Comments Off on Review: The Spinner’s Book of Yarn Designs
Tagged sarah anderson, Spinning
I do tend to switch back and forth between projects at the spinning wheel. With the first skein of Shale2012 plied, I’m now working on some lovely Pygora I picked up at the New England Fiber Festival last fall. It has gorgeous sheen and its quite soft. I’m planning to do a 2-ply and am curious to see how much yardage I get from an ounce.
