Innehållsförteckning för Fall 2023 från Spin-Off

Rolag, licker-in, doff, knee— the language of carding delights me. And these are just some examples from English-speaking traditions; there are many more. These still-common terms give us clues about the longevity and evolution of the technology as well. Rolag, an old word derived from Gaelic languages, describes neat rolls of fiber produced by handcards. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests several possible origins, and one connection might be rolla, which is an Early Irish word associated with rolls of parchment. Fascinating. Licker-in connects us with a more mechanized era. Found on large-scale carding mills as well as the compact drumcarders we can use on our kitchen tables, the licker-in is a common term for a smaller drum that first engages the fiber with its carding teeth, passing the fiber within…

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As I started working on this project, I decided to spin up a simple singles yarn in a bulky/superbulky weight. I always love a good rainbow or anything with neon pops in it. I enjoy the blend of natural and bright colors. Most of my batts have that kind of color scheme, no matter what I try to create! For this project, I knew that I wanted to stay true to what I love colorwise and what I love to create. When I drumcard my batts, I love to mix textures and colors directly on my drum. Instead of passing all my layers through the licker, I only pass the base that I’ve dyed. This creates a smooth canvas on which to paint the rest of my fibers. Once my…

There are two accessories to a flick card that I recommend: (1) a piece of leather or a piece of very strong denim to use under the locks that you are flicking and (2) a cleaning brush or some other tool for cleaning out any debris left on the card. Some spinners use other tools instead of or in addition to flick cards. Pet stores contain all sorts of fiber-worthy tools to try. For example, a dog rake is typically used for removing undercoats of dogs during shedding season. These useful tools can have one or two rows of very firm teeth (that are not bent), mostly in a straight line, although I prefer the version that has a V-shape alignment. A pet comb is just that: a comb with…

Experimenting with color and creating interesting color combinations are two things I absolutely love. My mind generously flows with ideas for managing color, from the preparation stage all the way to the final yarn. I tend to embrace colorplay without caution, viewing it as inspirational and therapeutic. One of my favorite ways to embrace color is by creating dynamic fractal yarns. In our spinning world, a fractal yarn has a plied structure and self-striping effects. These colorful skeins start when a whole colorway arrangement is divided into sections, each of which retains the same colors in the same sequence as the original. Some sections are divided further while others are not, and all are spun and plied in a way that maintains the original color arrangement. The result is a…

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• Do use a picker to blend colors, fibers, and different parts of a fleece.• Do try spinning straight from the picked cloud!• Do adjust a picker (if possible) for different fibers.• Do look under your picker and marvel at the pile of VM removed!• Don’t use a picker with very sticky, very greasy, or felted wool.• Don’t pick tender fibers or fleeces with a break (weak area).• Don’t continue picking if you hear fibers tearing.• Don’t ever use a picker when tired or distracted.…

Maker: Dia Robinson of Twisted Urban Fiber Arts Where to find them: twistedurban.etsy.com Tool: Brother Drumcarder 90 tpi When I sit in front of the drumcarder to create a batt, I think of myself as a painter preparing to embark on this incredible journey with the fiber as my paint and the drumcarder as my canvas. Many of my ideas for colorways come from sources such as photos, music, and books. Sometimes the colorways are designed for a specific theme, such as holidays, the seasons, or whatever strikes my imagination at the time. One of the biggest things I do as an artist is to make sure that I stay open to all inspiration and push myself to try different color combinations that one wouldn’t normally put together, keeping the…

“THAT’S DEFINITELY ME,” I thought as I started reading Wellness for Makers. Ballone writes: “I have worked with thousands of makers, and I often hear ‘I have terrible posture’ or ‘I’m just getting older.’ Have you ever said something like this to yourself?” I have! Many times, specifically about my posture and overly tight muscles. I assumed my back would always hurt, that the muscles in my legs would always pull and feel stiff. Given that I work from a laptop throughout the day and engage in hand-intensive fiber crafts—knitting, embroidery, quilting—pain in these areas as well as my wrists seemed inevitable. From the beginning of the book, Ballone, an artist, massage therapist, and yoga instructor, pushes back on those notions and illustrates how we should think about our bodies…

Maker: Ginny Tullock of FatCatKnits Where to find them: fatcatknits.etsy.com Tool: Louët Classic Drumcarder I love the collaborative creative process of dyeing and carding wool. I make a beautiful thing (braid or batt), which someone else then turns into another beautiful thing (usually yarn). They then further transform that into yet another beautiful thing (finished object of one sort or another). I feel so lucky to be a part of this process! I make two types of batts. My regular batts are lightly textured, with a focus on draftability and a pleasant, smoother spinning experience. I start with my dyed tops, then add two layers of mildly textured, colorful goodies: silk, bamboo, noils, sparkle, threads, and more. My art batts are chunkier and will definitely not yield a smooth, even…

When I first learned to spin, I purchased four pieces of equipment: a Lendrum spinning wheel, a kate, a niddy-noddy, and a set of handcards. In my fever to produce more yarn more quickly, I soon abandoned the handcards in favor of a drumcarder. In hindsight, I set the handcards aside before having fully explored all they had to offer. Like many spinners, I thought that handcards were only used to turn short-staple fibers into rolags. As it turns out, this is just one of their many uses. Handcards can also be used with medium- to long-staple fibers to produce long lengths of dizzed sliver that are a dream to spin. Add handpainted combed tops to the equation, and the possibilities for creating complex and interesting color effects are staggering.…

Pattern and designer Flax from Tin Can Knits. Fiber A variety that included Sheepspot Corriedale top, Frabjous Fibers Bluefaced Leicester and Lucky Baaahboo, Malabrigo Nube, dyed Romney and Lincoln locks, and Merino. Fiber/preparation Blending board rolags. Wheel system/spindle Lendrum double treadle, standard flyer. Ratio 8:1. Drafting method A short-backward draw letting in twist, keeping a thumb near the drafting triangle to monitor the fiber supply and adjust to different fibers in the blend. Singles direction Z-twist. Singles wraps per inch 24. Ply wraps per inch 12. Yards per pound 1,289. Total yardage 1,539 yards. Yardage used 1,150 yards. Yarn classification/weight DK. Needles Size 4 (3.5 mm) and 6 (4 mm). Gauge 18 stitches and 22 rows = 4". Finished size XL (a size 42.3" sweater at my slightly different gauge…

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You had to buy it. It spoke to you. You don’t know what you’ll do with it. If you are honest with yourself, it will probably sit in your stash for the next six years. I’m talking about that gorgeous one-of-a-kind indie-dyed braid you picked up at a fiber festival that won’t pair with anything you already have. There are tons of ways you could spin it for different color effects: chain-ply, rearrange the colors, fractal-ply, or thread-ply. Did you know that you can also create a “true neutral”? This is a technique you’ll likely want to add to your repertoire! In design, a neutral color is one that appears to be “without color” or that serves as a constant background and universal complement that doesn’t compete with other colors.…

I sampled several types of handspun for a Fisherman’s Rib scarf: a fingering-weight, woolen-spun Cormo two-ply yarn; next, I sampled a bulky alpaca/longwool singles yarn, and, finally, a sportweight alpaca/mixed wool/angora three-ply (chain-ply) yarn. In the end, I chose to spin and knit my scarf using a woolen-spun, three-ply, light worsted-weight yarn made by combining two color blends from my inventory here at Dakota Carding and Wool. The Comes October fiber blend contains a high percentage of dark brown alpaca fiber with highlights of rusts, purply pinks, and fiery orange dyed wool locks plus a touch of Firestar; this is a wonderful fall colorway. The Pumpkin Spice fiber blend of longwools and alpaca is a more solid orange colorway and provides a unifying color throughout the yarn. The drape and…

I value physical comfort in all my spinning activities, including fiber preparation. My motto: Don’t hurt yourself. Advice on how to use different preparation tools abounds, but what techniques are comfortable or uncomfortable is not the same for all spinners. You will need to pay attention to how your body feels as you use fiber-prep tools. If a particular movement is bothering you, change your movement or change the tool. ANATOMY OF A FLICK CARD A flick card is in many ways similar to a handcard, except flick cards are typically smaller than handcards. And flick cards come as singles, whereas handcards come in pairs. As with handcards, a flick card has a handle. The carding pad can be rectangular or square. Some flick cards are flat, some are curved,…

The Shetland old shell knitting pattern was—and is—so commonly used in the borders of Shetland haps that it became known as the hap shell. Haps are square, but some are now knitted as triangles—half haps. The construction for both full and half haps is mostly from the outside, but in a few areas in Shetland, haps were worked from the inside. The way it was done depended on who taught you. I learned working from the outside, and that is what I will share with you here. This construction method was used to create a range of haps and shawls in different sizes—small for wrapping baby, larger for work wear—and with a range of yarns. Instructions are provided for three yarn sizes: jumper weight, laceweight, and two-ply fine lace (equivalent…

Kim loves exploring new combinations of fiber preparation tools and techniques. She wrote a previous Spin Off article covering the finer points of wool combing and dizzing, as well as a fun tutorial on dizzing off of a blending board. We created companion videos for both of those techniques so you could see them in action, and you can find them on the Long Thread Media YouTube channel. The method shown for handling a diz in Kim’s combing video is the same as described here for dizzing from handcards. —Editor • McKenna, Kim. “Wool Combing and the Importance of Planking.” Spin Off, Fall 2020, 40–45.• “Dizzing: How to Remove Fiber from Wool Combs with a Diz,” YouTube, LT.Media/Diz-Comb.• McKenna, Kim. “Diz Is How I Use the Blending Board.” Spin Off,…

The sun’s rays glanced off the vegetative matter in the gray wool top I was hand picking. My slow labor was interrupted by an email with an invitation: Would I write an article about the use of the wool picker with a variety of fleece types? Yes! My mind instantly went to my Patrick Green Triple Picker and shed full of fleeces. Why would I hand pick when I have a machine to do it? The swing picker is a specialized tool for processing fleeces that have been skirted and scoured; it is not intended for fiber that has already been through a carding or combing process. The two main goals of picking are to open up the fiber by disarranging the fibers to create air spaces and to drop…

Each January, we invite handspinners to join us for a spin-along. This year, we challenged intrepid handspinners of all skill levels to spin for lace. Our cheerful community of makers took up the challenge and created some amazing knitted-, crocheted-, and woven-lace textiles. I’m grateful to these spinners for creating such inspiring work but also for allowing us to share their projects and thoughts here. We only have space to share a few of the many great projects, and you can find more on our website. I’ve already added three or four of these patterns to my project queue, and I hope you will, too! And a special thanks goes out to our spin-along leader, Stefanie Johnson! Stefanie is a frequent Spin Off contributor, fiber farmer, maker, and public health…