Spinning Tuesdays

Seattle Spinning, Knitting, and Weaving – Suggestions, Please!

This week I’m teaching at the Northwest Regional Spinners Association Conference in Olympia, Washington. It’s going to be an outstanding conference with a big list of creative teachers, an outstanding keynote speaker, and , of course, all of the visionary spinners attending. I’m ready to teach and to soak up all innovative thinking at the event. I am very grateful to my friend Lisa who has invited me to stay with her in Seattle for a few days after the conference. I haven’t been to Seattle since the 90’s, and I’d love to know what you suggest I ...

Rhinebeck Spinning Retreat, Spinning and Knitting with Louet in May

My friend and amazing spinning teacher, Beth Smith, is having a spinning retreat at Rhinebeck. The retreat is October 18-22. The price includes two days of classes,class materials, lodging, meals, a weekend pass to the Sheep and Wool festival and a goodie bag. Beth explains the whole weekend in this post. This is a great opportunity to take classes with Beth. She won’t be teaching much in 2019 because she’s spending the year learning and working on something new. The classes she’s teaching are ones I’d love to take (but I’m teaching elsewhere). There is a full ...

Kate Atherley’s Buttonholes for Handspun

Ok, these buttonholes aren’t only for knitting with handspun. This article is so perfectly succinct in the construction of six different buttonholes for hand knits that every spinner who knits needs to have it as a reference. Knitty’s own Tech Goddess, Kate Atherley, wrote this buttonhole article for Mason-Dixon Knitting. It shows how to make eyelet, eyelet in ribbing, horizontal, vertical, and afterthought buttonholes. Plus my new favorite, Slipped-Stitch Cable Buttonhole, I’ve never seen that one before and am in instant love. Being ever helpful and wickedly smart, Kate tell us how to fix a ...

New Sett Checker for Weaving

I’m so curious about weaving and how weaving works. Usually when I start a new craft I jump in the deep end and just start thrashing around. I do a lot of guessing with mixed results. What I realize after all of these years is that by not doing any methodical learning, it takes me twice as long to learn things; I stay an advanced beginner for a long time. This time around with weaving (the first time around is a story for another day – there was a lot of thrashing) I am vowing to be more methodical. But I also love a short cut (I’m lazy that way). Which is why Liz Gipson’s new Sett Checker is ...

Sampling Miss Babs Fiber

Did you know Miss Babs has spinning fiber? I saw it announced on her Instagram and hopped right on over to shop. Miss Babs has colors that are beautiful with so much variety in tone and depth. Plus Babs and all of her employees are the nicest people! I bought 8 ounces of two colors on BFL, Coffee Break and Deep Sea Jellyfish. She has added more colors since the last time I looked; someone hide my credit card. She has BFL, BFL/silk, Merino, Merino/silk, and Merino/bamboo/silk bases. Her descriptions say they are roving, but they sure look and feel like top to me. Her colors are divided into Wild Iris – not ...

Spinning in the Spring and Summer: The First Wave of Fiber Festivals

I get itchy this time of year because I know festival season is going to start soon. Animals, fiber, spinning, and friends all together usually at a fairground, I love it. In my mind the season opens with Maryland Sheep and Wool in May and it closes with the Southeast Animal Fiber Fair in October. Here’s a list of some of the US festivals from May-August. May May 5-6 Maryland Sheep and Wool, West Friendship, Maryland. May 11-13 Shepherd’s Harvest, Lake Elmo, Minnesota May 12-13 New Hampshire Sheep and Wool, Deerfield New, Hampshire May 19-20 Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival, Lexington, Kentucky ...

This Spinner Talks Knitting on Mason-Dixon Knitting

I have a new post up at Mason-Dixon Knitting about how ply in commercial yarn affects knitting. I’ve been having a great time over the past few posts talking to knitters about how yarns are constructed and what it means to our knitting. Everyone seems happy to learn new things and to find out that some knitting snafus are caused by yarn fiber, draft and ply, not by our ability to knit. I demonstrated fun with ply in some great yarns : Single-ply (singles): Mrs. Crosby, Satchel (100% Superwash Merino), Color: Spun Gold. 2-ply: Sincere Sheep, Cormo Fingering (100% Cormo), Color: Vit ...

A New Spinning Book: 51 Yarns by Jacey Boggs Faulkner! Psst, there’s a giveaway….

There aren’t that many spinning books that get published each year and I feel that each one should be celebrated! The newest book to join the spinning fold is 51 Yarns to Spin Before You Cast Off by Jacey Boggs Faulkner, Queen of PLY Magazine, PLY Away and the new PLY Books program. I work with Jacey on books, so I’m not writing a review, just doing a little show and tell of our new book. This book outlines 51 yarns every spinner should spin before they are done. Done with spinning, done with fiber, or that bigger done. There are breeds, drafts and particular plies to explore, with tips and how-tos to get ...

Community Love: Abundant Earth Fiber

In the time between Madrona and Stitches West the wonderful and creative people at Abundant Earth Fiber had their entire inventory stolen from their trailer. You can read the story here. This is a devastating loss to Lydia and her team. I first learned about Abundant Earth from Ken of Homestead Hobbyist at Madrona a year ago, she makes some of his most unique yarns in her mill. She also makes yarns for YOTH and other discerning companies and people. She makes yarn and processes fiber into roving and batts from locally sourced wool. She also has a really cool way to easily dye yarn and fiber. I ...

Inspiration: Handspun Knitty Projects from First Fall 2017

I want to knit a lot more with my handspun this year so I went in search of inspiration. I took a peek at First Fall Knitty, 2017 to see if any spinning knitters had made projects from handspun, and I found some beautiful projects. Miss Bunt’s Mostly Bosco, an all handspun version of Bosco spun from Southercross Fibre’s Veternari. The colors and all over striping make a vibrarnt sweater. I’d like to wear this in the middle of a grey winter! Missbrownspeck’s Slow Fade, from Kate’s Slow Fade. It’s still a WIP, but it’s so pretty in ...