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With its soothing, meditative effect, handspinning is a relaxing hobby, and the beautiful yarns you create are an even better reward. This visual guide shows you the basics, beginning with the tools and fibers, and takes you through spinning, plying, making novelty yarns, using exotic fibers, dyeing, and more. Whether you use an inexpensive hand spindle or splurge on a spinning wheel, stick with wool or try alpaca, cashmere, or cotton, you'll learn how to create fun, original, one-of-a-kind yarns that you can knit or weave into truly unique, handmade, and all-natural creations. Concise two-page lessons show you all the steps to a skill and are ideal for quick review The skill demonstrated is defined and described Detailed color photos demonstrate each step Step-by-step instructions accompany each photo Helpful tips provide additional guidance
Meet the people, sample the flavor, and experience the kinship through 11 unique events and more than 25 inspiring projects. Yarn enthusiasts from coast to coast are embracing fiber festivals with gusto, from New York's Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival to Oregon's Black Sheep Gathering. This large-format, full-color book is a stunning visual celebration of eleven fiber festivals throughout the U.S., showcasing the rich marketplace and sprawling agricultural exhibits that attract visitors in astounding numbers. Perfect as a coffee table book, it also includes instructions for creating 25 unique knitting, crocheting, spinning, and dyeing projects that reflect the rural couture of these popula...
Do you long for the country life? Hobby Farming For Dummies is a practical guide that will show you how to handle all the basics of small-scale farming, from growing healthy crops to raising livestock and managing your property. You'll see how to decide what to farm, provide shelter and utilities, select plants, and protect your investment. It's all you need to dig in and start growing! You’ll get a real idea of what it really means to jump from your current lifestyle to a life farming in the countryside. You’ll get the information you need to decide if the farming lifestyle is right for you and your personality. You’ll learn everything you need to know about property and how to access...
As the DIY trend continues, crafters are taking their skills to the next level and are looking for "what's next." Hand-dyeing is on the rise--giving crafters the freedom to create their own unique yarns and fibers to spin wholly original projects. This photo-intensive book covers everything from dyeing with Kool-Aid to more involved processes like working with acid dyes and hand-painting. Concealed wiro binding allows the book to lay flat--perfect for undertaking projects with wet or dye-covered hands. Barbara Parry (Shelburne, MA) is the founder and creative vision behind Foxfire Fiber & Designs. She produces her own yarn line from the wool of the sheep she raises on her farm in the Berkshire foothills, which is home to 70 sheep, two llamas, and two goats. The wool she produces is prized by knitters and handspinners and has won numerous awards. Barbara chronicles life on her farm in her blog "Sheep Gal: Notes from a Shelburne Shepherd" (www.sheepgal.typepad.com).
A follow-up to the original Homespun Handknit--a perennial bestseller for two decades--this collection revitalizes the craft of handspun yarn for a whole new generation of spinners and knitters. Packed with modern and traditional spinning know-how and 25 sophisticated, easy-to-learn projects, the guide helps crafters create unique gifts and wearable fashion while refining their skills and enhancing their understanding of this popular art form. With designs from some of the most influential knitters and spinners working today--including Kathryn Alexander, Jeanine Bakridges, and Abby Franquemont--this inspiring resource features hats, mittens, scarves, socks, bags, children’s items, wraps, and home decor options to challenge fiber artists of all skill levels. Imparting essential and informative advice--on measuring yarns, reviewing woolen versus worsted, drive/tension differences, special techniques, and basic yarn dynamics--and complemented by basic knitting and spinning glossaries, this refreshing contemporary companion to a much-loved classic is an indispensable addition to every craft lover's bookshelf.
Offering a blend of technical knowledge, history, and easy-to-use tips, this inspiring collection of spinning wisdom deftly explores the three fundamental areas of yarn production: understanding fibers, managing yarn structure, and making yarns that precisely meet the spinner's needs. The rich, historic traditions of plant and animal fibers are fascinatingly juxtaposed with recent advances in synthesized fiber and mankind's use of fibers in the past, present, and future, while detailed, image-laden instructions for four intermediate projects demonstrate the range of possibilities, from sturdy, plied yarns to playful, novelty yarns. Spinners are also offered guidance on planning a project from start to finish, as well as how to care for and store completed projects.
It's time to look beyond wool, with The Practical Spinner's Guide: Rare Luxury Fibers! The go-to expert for fiber artists, Judith MacKenzie shares insights into working with uncommon (but readily available) luxury downs in this comprehensive, yet practical, guide for today's spinners. With her natural voice for story telling that is both engaging and informative, she discusses the history of each of these downs, how they are used today, characteristics unique to each, and where to find them. She also dives deep into the specific spinning techniques for each fiber, knitting and weaving rare fibers, and dying them once spun. From angora to bison, camel to cashmere, there's a whole world of rare luxury fibers just waiting to be spun!
With expert answers to scores of new knitting questions, Margaret Radcliffe’s classic guide is better than ever. You’ll find a wide assortment of cast ons and bind offs, techniques for beading and knitting backwards, tips for knitting in the round, and strategies for measuring tricky fabrics. Whether you’re a beginner venturing out into the wide world of yarn crafts or a more experienced knitter struggling through complex needlework challenges, The Knitting Answer Book has a solution for every knitting problem you’ll encounter.
Enjoying a resurgence in popularity thanks to the current trend of DIY crafts, the hand spindle remains one of the most productive, versatile, and convenient tools for creating stunning fiber arts from home, as this beautifully illustrated guide from a veteran spinner and spindle aficionado demonstrates. With step-by-step instructions, this essential manual details the basic steps of spinning and then advances to the more complicated spinning wheel, showing how to use the spindle to make specific types of yarn, explaining traditional spindle spinning techniques, and detailing five simple projects designed to instill confidence in creating a variety of yarns with this simple tool. Combining fascinating historical narratives, traditions, and cultures from around the globe with vivid photography, this all-encompassing tour of the spindle also boasts easy-to-follow, contemporary techniques and styles that affirm the tool's enduring legacy.
For knitters, crocheters, and weavers ready to make their own yarn, this handy guide provides detailed instructions for spinning both on a spindle and a wheel, and offers a special section devoted to troubleshooting and wheel maintenance that keeps projects on track. It offers a comprehensive look at the various available fiber options, choosing and preparing each type of fiber for use, and crafting these materials into ready-to-work pieces. A final chapter on the various uses of spun yarn focuses on project planning, with definitions and context for measuring wraps per inch, determining yards for specific projects, and choosing a yarn size.