The Spinner's Book of Yarn Designs: Techniques for Creating 80 Yarns

by Sarah Anderson, Judith MacKenzie (Foreword by)

Overview

Discover the satisfying fun of spinning your own yarn! This step-by-step guide shows you how to create 80 distinctive yarn types, from classics like mohair bouclé to novelties like supercoils. Covering the entire spinning process, Sarah Anderson describes the unique architecture of each type of yarn and shares expert techniques for manipulating and combining fibers. Take your crafting to a new level and ensure that you have the best yarn available by spinning it yourself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781603427388
Publisher:	Storey Publishing, LLC
Publication date:	01/29/2013
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Sarah Anderson learned to knit at a very young age and has been hooked on the fiber crafts ever since. She taught herself to spin at 13, but it was not until 1992 that she became serious about her spinning. She developed a new technique she calls “wrap and roll,” which won her a cover on Spin Off magazine in 2008. She has taught at the Spin-Off Autumn Retreat (SOAR), contributed knit designs to All New Homespun and Handknit, and teaches at many venues. She lives near Snohomish, Washington.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Judith MacKenzie

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

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

This inspired resource for spinners details the dizzying array of techniques and tactics that turn fleece into yarn. Veteran spinner Anderson has created a veritable spinner’s cookbook, detailing 80 lovely concoctions and confections, with suggestions for variations and further exploration. The opening chapter covers basic fiber preparation and spinning techniques. Chapters on singles, the spinner’s basic building block, detail techniques for stand-alone singles and singles for plying; subsequent chapters cover spiral yarns, opposing plies, boucles, cable, crepe, coil, and novelty yarns. Delicious varieties such as spiral “flame yarn,” “bubble crepe,” “cloud yarn,” and distinctive “pigtail yarn” are detailed. Beautiful illustrations and clear step-by-step diagrams are offered for each of the 80 yarns that are discussed, and pop-out boxes with tips, tricks, and food for thought (for example, “lace knitting: two-ply versus three-ply”) pepper each chapter. The pages have thoughtful side tab labels to make finding the right section easy. Inventive, accessible, and fun, this book is an invitation to spinners of all skill levels to venture into uncharted territory and try out something new. This beautiful reference is an essential addition to any spinner’s library.

From the Publisher

This is the spinning book every spinner will rush out and buy this fall. This book doesn't teach you to spin —it teaches you the potential of your spinning.

Sarah Anderson guides spinners through the making of 80 different yarns, each building on the techniques of the yarn before it. The writing style is concise and at the same time thorough and inspiring – I wanted to spin every single yarn I read about the second I finished reading.

Beyond the making of yarns, Sarah reminds spinners of the basics: twist and balance, woolen vs. worsted, washing fleece and an excellent section on fiber prep carding (hand and drum) and combing. Throughout the book, she talks about a sock knitting experiment she carried out while writing this book – what yarn structure is the best for socks? You'll have to read it to find out. There are tips scattered through the book that focus on tricky bits of some of the yarn structures and invaluable tips for knitting with different types of yarns.

The book is filled with photographs, more than I think I've seen in any other spinning book – excellent process photos, beautiful project photos and lots of inspirational photos. It's wonderful to see a book take the space to satiate visual learners.

This isn't a book for the most beginning of spinners, but it could be a second spinning book. There is little discussion of how different breeds affect the yarn spun, but that's a book in itself.

The joy in this book is the instruction of 80 yarns spinners now have at their fingertips. What the Barbara Walker's Treasury of Knitting pattern books are to knitters, The Spinner's Book of Yarn Designs will be to spinners.

Knitty.com