What I love about spinning is the generosity of the process. Spinning is not like making TNT, where the steps and proportions have to be perfectly precise (or else), or like computer programming, where every step has to be in logical order. With spinning, you can improvise. You can problem-solve. You...
I'll never forget my first encounter with Richard Rutt's wonderful book, The History of Handknitting . I was attending the Frankfurt Book Fair for the first time, and was pretty overwhelmed by its vastness, variety, verbal hubbub (and my lack of German and stolen passport, but that's another...
Are you one of those spinners who wants everything to be precise? Who believes all yarn is either woolen or worsted, nothing in between? Who believes an inch is an inch, and that's the end of the story? Do not read further. I've just been reviewing a collection of articles Rita Buchanan wrote...
My first question, when I was learning to spin many decades ago, was "why does this darn doorknob thingy keep dropping on the floor?" Well, that was a long time ago, and it really was a wooden doorknob on a dowel, and I was trying to spin grease fleece. Why indeed! Over the years, the questions...
Picture this: Spinning diva Abby Franquemont, a woodshop, a couple of aluminum ladders for props, two rowdy kittens. Add: three video cameras, a bunch of lights, a sound system, some camera guys. Result? Drafting: The Long and Short of It , an hour of intense focus on choosing fiber, drafting fiber,...
Or: why spinners need their own special calendar Old hippies have their own special calendar (so they can find out on what day "A Whiter Shade of Pale" hit the top of the charts). Mathematicians have their own calendar (in case they need a reminder to celebrate Pi Day—3.14). Well, we...
Last post, I was asking the world at large whether men of the Guatemalan highlands still spin wool on drop spindles, as they did when Olive and Harry Linder visited there in the late 1970s. Having spent several days chasing the answer, I have to say it’s a qualified “no.” Of course...