There's something
wonderful about how a craft as basic and transcendental as spinning flourishes
in this age of iPads, Blackberries, and Netbooks—and, in fact, is sometimes
enhanced by the technology that often seems the antithesis of spinning. Stefanie Berganini, Spin-Off's assistant editor
who is a lot more tech-savvy than I am, recently introduced me to the iTouch
applications for spinning. By far our favorite app was the iSpin Toolkit, a
spinner's tool kit with wraps per inch and twist angle measurement features
that switch from black to white contrast to make it easier to see your yarn as
you compare it to the measurements on the screen. How cool is that? Do you have
a favorite spinning app? Tell us about it in the comments.
I've been listening to podcasts about spinning
as I spin—they are like radio shows that were made especially for me by other
spinners—sometimes half a world away and yet magically right there in my living
room sharing their spinning experiences with me.
When my parents
decided to spend a year in Spain while my dad was on sabbatical, we quickly
learned how to Skype so that we could stay in touch—they want to see how
quickly Sarah is growing (can you
believe she's already four months old)—not just hear about it. I've been
imagining how useful a video conference could be for my spinning, too—a quick Skype
call to a friend to ask why is my Navajo plying not working, "See this is
how I'm doing it, do you know why it's not working?"
Spin-Off is also embracing new technology to help spread the word
of this ancient craft. We've just compiled all
four of the 2008 issues on CD. They are exact replicas of the hard-copy
issues, available electronically. If this is something that you like, then we
plan on putting the entire thirty-three years Spin-Off on CD one year at
a time. It's handy for portability and also for archiving—what if you lent your
Summer 2008 issue of Spin-Off to one of your Knitting Night buddies and
she still has it, and you want to make a Morning Surf Scarf? Just pop your CD
in your computer and you're ready to spin up your yarn and cast-on.
—Amy