Innehållsförteckning för Spring 2016 från Spin-Off

Depending on your perspective, “Arts & Crafts” could mean anything from the movement associated with William Morris to recess. Some spinners turn up their noses at art yarns; other spinners believe that spinning is inherently an art when practiced with intention. “Craft” could be a summer camp activity or the deep, practiced mastery that an artisan (there we go again!) takes pride in. Let’s resolve to see the best meaning in these words, whatever your spinning style. Indulge your artistic spirit when you spin for your own Bay Leaf Bag, or hone your craftsmanship as you practice fine embroidery. Use your finely crafted blending tools to make punis that are works of art. There’s room for a little arts & crafts in your spinning life. (Come practice both with us…

LearnMore Power Spinning video Sarah Anderson www.bit.ly/powerspinning-download Spinning Exotic Fiber Blends video Sarah Anderson www.bit.ly/spinningexotic-fiber-blendsdownload…

For this issue’s theme of Arts & Crafts, we asked readers to enjoy the process of making something useful, beautiful, or both, with the note, “The slower, the better.” Our creative readers stretched their talents and created some unique yarns. ROSEMARY S. MALBIN OF HOUSTON, TEXAS Corn silk spun onto 20/2 silk, plied with gold braid yarn. 15 wpi, 1,300 ypp “Spinning Silk onto Gold.” SHIRLEY LYSTER OF POWELL RIVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA Corriedale top, handcarded. 13 wpi, 1,100 ypp “I blended three shades of Corriedale top for a heathered yarn and divided into four lots for handcarding. I layered pink, then burgundy, then pink/mauve, and carded once. I pulled off the batt and folded it in half lengthwise, drafted lengthwise, spun onto one bobbin, then Andean plyed.” GAYLE PAIGE OF…

The father of the Arts and Crafts movement, Morris was deeply concerned about how the Industrial Revolution was changing the way things were made and how this affected the landscape and social structure of Britain. He was fascinated with the England of the Middle Ages, believing that life had been simpler and happier, a time of greater harmony between humans and nature. William Morris said, “I do not want art for a few any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few.” Morris believed the role of art was to improve the lives of ordinary people, even the artisans who realized his designs. Morris and his followers believed that work from its design to completion should be the product of the individual. He thought that people who…

What a joy it is to embroider handspun yarns onto handwoven cloth! To weave the cloth used for this project, I used woolen-type yarns. I started with an airy batt and naturalcolor longwool roving and spun them with a semiwoolen draw and low to medium twist. The resulting yarns were soft and slightly textured, which can make the final fabric look a bit more like tweed. The structure of the fabric is created with wet-finishing. After the piece is woven and hemstitched, the fabric can be fulled with hot water and agitation. (To learn more about this process, see Norman Kennedy’s video From Wool to Waulking.) With this type of finishing, the cloth will shrink. How much it shrinks in each direction depends on the fiber used, the density of…

I know not everyone is as enthusiastic as I am about processing raw fleeces. Some people want to rush through the fiber preparation process, spending as little time and effort as possible to get to the “good part”—spinning. But when you start to see your carder as a creative design tool and the colors and fiber blends as yours alone, it is easier to take your time. Carding becomes more relaxed, creative, and rewarding. Using the drumcarder as a design tool works for self-striping socks, a lace scarf, a knitted sweater, and more. It’s not just for fleece, either: the drumcarder can also turn commercially processed and dyed roving into unique batts that become yarns of your own design. DYEING IN THE BATT I begin the carding process by carding…

I am a crow. Anything sparkly catches my eye, and I am drawn to it, grabbing it and tucking it into my nest. Beads are the most intoxicating for me. They line my stash of fiber and yarn in tubes and strands. Sometimes I load them into small jars so I can just pick and choose from among the lot. I love art yarns—all different sorts, but the ones with beads hold my heart. Sparkling with caught light, they bring out the sheen and relieve the dense matte finish of the fuzzy fiber. In my knitting, I often add beads to my patterns, and when I come across a skein of handspun with beads spun into the fiber, I cannot resist. Having the ability to add beads to my own…

I like to ply when I have a project in mind, but usually I get a new fiber, rush home, spin up a bobbin—and then I’m off to something else. Plying just doesn’t give me the same rush. If you have bobbins that you haven’t gotten around to plying; then give this cowl a try. It uses your rested singles and a pin loom and lets the twist do all the work. This is a very forgiving project. Solid colors or dyed multicolors will both work well, and the fiber choice is flexible. Wool, wool and silk, wool and Tencel, superwash or not, small samples of fiber or full braids—all will work and, with enough twist, give the desired results. The fiber preparation can be well-made roving or top. For…

Veterinary Dentist Tell us about your day job. I’m a veterinarian, focusing on dentistry. I mainly treat dogs and cats but occasionally get to do other fun things. I worked on a hooded seal for the Mystic Aquarium a few years ago, and that was really special as I was asked to help release her back into the wild after rehabilitation. Occasionally I get to treat a fiber animal—it’s been a few years since I last worked on a llama. How did you become a spinner? I went to a local fiber meetup, and someone showed me how to use a drop spindle. Do you have other fiber arts hobbies? I have been knitting for decades. My grandmother tried to teach me when I was seven, and I picked it…

KYLE KUNNECKE When I first learned to knit, I found the repetitive rhythm meditative and knew I wanted to learn more about other fiber arts and how they might influence my knitting designs. In the beginning, spinning and weaving felt complicated, but I was continuously reminded that the textile arts hold a never-ending opportunity for creative expression… if I just give myself the gift of time, seek guidance, and have patience with myself. As I learned more, my interests expanded to dyeing yarns and roving, to weaving, and eventually, to spinning. I found the processes of spinning and weaving, like knitting, created a feeling of comfort, meditation, and calm. My recent obsessions have been learning about the symbolism in Navajo tapestry weaving, and cultural knitting and weaving traditions. Through time…

Embroidery using woolen yarns, often called crewel embroidery, is one of my favorite ways to explore the wonderful diversity of sheep breeds and wool types we have easy access to today. It can be so wonderfully indulgent to take a lock from a freshly washed fleece or just a bit of fiber from a newly procured handpainted top and go straight to my wheel, just to see what it feels like as fibers meet twist. From silky longwool locks to crimpy Corriedale, embroidery is a great way to play with wool using small dabs of yarn. I have heard spinners say that their handspun yarns are not fine or consistent enough for embroidery. However, some of my favorite embroidered pieces include textured handspun yarns in gauges larger than the quintessential…

Punis are surprisingly simple to make using a variety of techniques. They are fabulously portable and compact, which makes them the perfect preparation for spindle spinners. Some spinners prefer them for spinning woolen and long-draw yarns, as the fiber is open and the strands very deliberately crisscross one another. To use them, spin from the end or lightly draft them prior to spinning. There are several methods to create punis. Some techniques use traditional tools and are very costeffective. Others use more expensive equipment to produce the sweet little rolls at a faster pace. MATERIALS Equipment 2 smooth ¼" DOWEL RODS or metal KNITTING NEEDLES A pair of HANDCARDS or a BLENDING BOARD with a brush or flick carder or a DRUMCARDER with a brush attachment Fiber Several ounces of processed…

I’ve probably spent more than my fair share of time thinking about that, actually. Heck, I’ve spent time drawing out charts that look like they could go on the wall of a junior high science classroom, classifying and categorizing spindles and sorting them into kingdom, phylum, class, and so on down to individual species. I’ve come at it from many different angles, and still, coming up with a system of classification that works across the board is an elusive goal. SUSPENDING THE RULES Some of the most commonly used terms don’t really apply as cleanly as we might like. The biggest sticking point for me in recent years has been the perceived distinction between “support spindle” and “drop spindle.” The problem: These words are more about how the spindles are…

FLAX AND LINEN: FOLLOWING THE THREAD FROM PAST TO PRESENT IN NEW ENGLAND Flax enthusiasts have an exciting new opportunity to gather for learning and sharing this fall. Registration is now open for the 2016 Flax and Linen Symposium to be held August 20–21 in Deerfield, Massachusetts. The event is being presented by the New England Flax and Linen Study Group in collaboration with Historic Deerfield. Organizing member Carolyn Wetzel says, “The symposium will bring together experts and people interested in starting to work with flax or [who] have limited experience. We are inviting a range of panelists and presenters, including several fibershed groups, flax producers, and weavers, and authors Christian and Johannes Zinzendorf will give a keynote talk. . . . This is not a typical academic-style symposium, and we…

New Directions in Sock Knitting: 18 Innovative Designs Knitted from Every Which Way BY ANN BUDD For most knitters, teacher and best-selling author Ann Budd needs no introduction. In this volume, she’s curated a collection of eighteen deliberately unusual sock patterns. The hook is in straying from the norm. Each sock deviates, some a little and some a lot, from traditional construction techniques. The book is arranged in three chapters: the fi rst features socks knitted from the top down, the second from the toe up, and the third side to side or in multiple directions. Though the patterns all hit around standard mid-calf height, there’s plenty of variation in colorwork, texture, and technique for each to hold its own. As it focuses on nonstandard construction, this book may not…

Q My spinning wheel can be adjusted to move the mother-of-all. When, if ever, should I adjust it? A On spinning wheels that have a flyer-and-bobbin mechanism, the mother-of-all (MOA) is the horizontal bar that supports the front and rear maidens. These maidens hold the flyer and bobbin. On some modern wheels (such as the Ashford Joy, Blue-Bonnet, and Majacraft wheels), there is no MOA per se; instead, the flyer and bobbin have a single upright support near the back of the flyer. Moving the MOA (or flyer and bobbin) changes the tension on the drive band. When the MOA is moved farther away from the drive wheel, the tension (pulling force) on the drive band is increased; when the MOA is moved closer to the drive wheel, the tension on…

In many textile traditions, embellished pockets and pouches are wonderful examples of everyday cloth made more beautiful—from embroidered pockets hung from the waist in eighteenth-century England to intricately embroidered bags in many shapes and sizes from Afghanistan. Small embroidered bags give you a chance to get stitching with a very small amount of yarn and material. MATERIALS Sage green bag GROUND FABRIC 10" wide and 26" long fulled wool fabric (see page 47). EMBROIDERY YARNS Small amounts of fiber; 7 yd each 2-ply Merino/Tencel, 2-ply Horned Dorset, 3-ply Corriedale; 2 yd tailspun Gotland locks. Gray bag GROUND FABRIC 10" long and 11" wide piece of leg of recycled woolen trousers. EMBROIDERY YARNS 7 yd each 2-ply Merino/bombyx silk, 2-ply worsted-spun Gotland, 3-ply Corriedale; 2 yd of corespun bouclé. Notions 28"…

We inherit spinning from ancient times, but with a gap. The mechanization of spinning during the Industrial Revolution gradually removed human hands from the process of making yarn. The development of mass-produced cloth ensured that people in industrialized societies did not need to know how yarn or cloth was made and created a long break in the handing down of such knowledge. Thus, when handspinning was taken up in the United States in the 1960s to 1980s, there was a lack of continuity that affects many of the teaching methods, ideas, and assumptions prevalent today. It is because of this knowledge gap, this break in handspinning continuity in the West, that I feel gratitude for the Internet and the range of influences it has made possible for our craft. There…

I am a curious, some say contrary, spinner. I am always trying things, experimenting, and asking, “Really? Does it have to be spun that way?” For a while now, I’ve had an obstinate curiosity about camel. Most spinners say it needs to be spun with high twist, around a 50-degree twist angle, to make good, sound yarn. I can see why; it’s a very shortstapled fiber that is usually spun fine. But would it hold at a lower twist angle? As a thicker yarn? I decided to experiment. SETTING THE STAGE FOR SUCCESS When I experiment, I like to set myself up for success as much as possible. First, I decided to make two sets of yarns, one set with 100% camel and one with a blend of 50% camel…

SPINNING FOR CLASPED-WEFT WEAVING I wanted the warp to be of a suitable grist and strength to use on a rigid-heddle loom with an 8-dent reed. I sampled with a commercial wool yarn of an appropriate size for that sett, which I used as a guide for spinning the warp. The warp fiber came as carded roving with a staple length of about 3 inches. I spun it Z with a backward, modified point-of-contact draw, then plied S. The weft fiber, in two colors that remind me of sherbet, had a staple length of about 3 inches and “wanted” to be spun fine. I spun each color separately, moderately fine and with a short backward draw in the Z direction, and then plied S. I chose not to use a…

Weaving with consistent commercial or handspun yarn in the warp can provide a stable base for inconsistent, bulky, and unstable art yarn in the weft. (Stable textured yarn can be used in the warp as well as the weft.) I have found that coiled yarn is best used in the weft. It is a textured corespun yarn made by plying one yarn at a 90-degree angle around a core. This plying technique eats a lot of yardage, so another question is, “What to do with a small ball of this fabulous yarn?” For this project, I wanted to showcase the coiled yarn, so I planned to make the warp virtually disappear. I used a color similar to the coiled yarn for the warp. Due to the stacked nature of the…