Spin-Off

Fall 2009: Fall Leaves Shawl Edging

stefanie berganini — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:08:03 GMT

In the Fall 2009 issue we inadvertently printed an incorrect chart for the Fall Leaves Shawl edging. This is the updated chart.

Spinning Art: Handspinning as Creative Expression by Tracy Hudson

Amy Clarke Moore — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:22:31 GMT

Explore the world of art yarn!

Oops! Our apologies to the artists who created these yarns and provided images--the captions on a number of the photos were mixed up. We've corrected the errors in this electronic copy.

Fall 2009 Fiber Directory

stefanie berganini — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:50:15 GMT

Welcome to Spin-Off's first ever natural fiber directory. This is your one-stop, all encompassing, easy-to-take-with-you listing of fiber resources. Enjoy poring over these listings and fantasizing about your next foray into the land of natural fiber.

SOAR 2010 Mentor Application

stefanie berganini — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:27:42 GMT

SOAR 2010 will be held at Lake Lawn Resort in Delavan, Wisconsin October 24-31, 2010.

Mentor applications are due to Stefanie Berganini by December 1, 2009:

sberganini@interweave.com

SOAR 2010

201 E Fourth St.

Loveland, CO 80537

SOAR 2009 shipping information

stefanie berganini — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:22:25 GMT

SHIPPING INFORMATION

Sunriver Resort can receive limited shipments no more than three days prior to SOAR (10/22). Due to the high volume of guests that receive packages, it is very important to label all shipments properly. Shipments not labeled correctly may be refused or returned by the shipping company. Sunriver Resort does not take responsibility for returned/refused items. Please label the boxes with the following information:

Pre-Arrival Shipments from UPS, FedEx, DHL

Great Hall Complex / Sunriver Resort
57081 Meadow Road
Sunriver, Oregon 97707
Conference Name: SOAR (Spin-Off Autumn Retreat)
Hold for:
Box # of #

Pre-Arrival Shipments from USPS

Anything shipped through the USPS must be directed to the following address.

Guest Name
Sunriver Resort
P.O. Box 3609
Sunriver, OR 97707

Handspun Gallery: All Wrapped Up in Natural Fibers

Spin-Off — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:22:13 GMT

To celebrate the International Year of Natural Fibres, we put out a call for entries to Spin.Off readers asking you to submit your scarves made from natural fibers that had been processed by hand. Many people rose to the challenge and submitted beautiful scarves made from a diversity of natural fibers using many different techniques, and some even used natural dyes to color the fiber. We selected nine scarves to show you.

2009, Fall: Natural Fibers from Scratch Yarns

Spin-Off — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:17:52 GMT

Wool you processed yourself, cotton you prepared from the boll, silk reeled from cocoons, etc. No manufactured or synthetic fibers here—these yarns are as natural and pure as they come! All yarn must also be natural colored or dyed with natural materials. Shown here are the yarns we received. Yarns are shown at 100%. Details show the yarns magnified at 290%.

Call for Entries--Horseshoe Cap

Amy Clarke Moore — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:06:14 GMT

Horseshoe Cap
Call for Entries

In the Handspun Gallery of the Summer 2010 issue of Spin-Off, we’d like to showcase your versions of the Horseshoe Cap and invite you to submit your caps by February 1, 2010.

To download the entry guidelines, please click on the green download button on the righthand side of the screen.

Horseshoe Cap

Amy Clarke Moore — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:01:27 GMT

Enjoy this free pattern by Janet Wray. If you're happy with your handspun version, consider submitting it to our call for entries! Reader versions of the Horseshoe Cap will be featured in the Summer 2010 issue of Spin-Off's Handspun Gallery.

To download the pattern, please click on the green download button on the righthand side of the screen.

Quant by Star Athena

stefanie berganini — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:06:00 GMT

Star Athena first published her Quant pattern in the Winter 2007 issue of Knitty.com. Many spinners fell in love with this entrelac pattern that uses about 2 ounces and about 200 yards of yarn. It is a great pattern for showing off hand-dyed fiber and handspun yarn.

A handspun gallery of Quants is featured in the Summer 2009 issue of Spin-Off.

Call for Submissions--Button-Up Neck Warmers

Amy Clarke Moore — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:12:41 GMT

Button-Up Neck Warmer
Call for Submissions

In the Handspun Gallery of the Spring 2010 issue of Spin-Off, we’d like to showcase your versions of the Button-Up Neck Warmer that was published in the Summer 2009 issue of Spin-Off and invite you to submit your scarves by November 9, 2009.

Errata for the Estonian Sheep Puppets--Summer 2006

Amy Clarke Moore — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:33:09 GMT

In the Summer 2006 issue we inadvertently omitted part of the instructions for forming an ear in the Estonian Sheep Puppets project. The directions should have indicated the following

Cast on 24 sts; join, being careful not to twist the cast-on row.

Knit 10 rounds.

Shape top

K1, ssk, k6, k2tog, k1 twice. 20 sts remain.
Knit 2 rounds.
K1, ssk, k4, k2tog, k1 twice. 16 sts remain.
Knit 2 rounds.
K1, ssk, k2, k2tog, k1 twice. 12 sts remain.
Knit 2 rounds
K1, ssk, k2tog, k1 twice. 8 sts remain.
Knit 2 rounds
K1, k2tog, k1 twice. 4 sts remain.

Cut yarn and draw tail through remaining sts; weave in tail neatly on WS.

Lanolin for Healing by Suzanne Artley

Spin-Off — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:27:35 GMT

When I was sixteen, I was given a pair of riding gloves made from goatskin. They were soft and supple with lanolin rubbed into the leather, and I carried them everywhere. The smell was comfort I couldn’t explain. Fast-forward thirty-five years. Well, thirty-five years wasn’t exactly fast, but marriages, children, graduate school, and a lifestyle at the speed of light caught up with me just after fifty.

By fifty-one, I was in the recliner every day, flattened by chronic fatigue syndrome. Waking in the morning, I would sometimes feel normal until I got out of bed, took three steps, and hit a nauseating wall of fatigue.

Finding Balance

Spin-Off — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:25:14 GMT

Spinning is a combination of art and science, philosophy and physics, intuition and logic. We’re taught to draft and join and spin, but only skill and experience can tell us how much twist is enough for a particular fiber. We learn the attributes of two-ply, three-ply, and cabled yarns but choose to do one or the other “because it feels right.” Perhaps this is why spinning is so satisfying: both halves of our brains—the intuitive, emotional side and the calculating, rational side—get a chance to shine.

2009, Spring: Spindle-Spun Yarn

stefanie berganini — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:09:23 GMT

High whorl, low whorl, tahkli, or Turkish—anything goes! Yarns are shown at 100%. Details show the yarns magnified at 235%.

All Wrapped Up in Natural Fibers Contest

Amy Clarke Moore — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:27:47 GMT

Call for Entries

The Fall 2009 issue of Spin-Off will celebrate Natural Fibers in conjunction with the United Nations declaration of 2009 as the International Year of Natural Fibers (learn more at www.naturalfibres2009.org). In the Handspun Gallery of the Fall issue, we’d like to showcase what you’re doing with natural fibers and invite you to submit your scarves by May 20, 2009.

Two birds, one stone

You could, in theory, participate in our contest and also participate in this one sponsored by the International Year of Natural Fiber with the same scarf--just follow the guidelines for both contests while you make your scarf.

SOAR 2009 Guide to Workshops

stefanie berganini — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:41:44 GMT

Join us as we head to the Northwest for the 27th annual SOAR. An excellent group of mentors and a broad range of 15 classes offer something for every spinner, novice to advanced. Enjoy three-day workshops and four half-day retreat sessions, spinners’ market, gallery, fashion show, spin-ins, plus time for sharing your fiber passions. Register for a workshop only, the retreat only, or join us for the entire week.

This pdf file includes decriptions of all the workshop classes offered at this year's SOAR.

SOAR 2009 Guide to Retreat

stefanie berganini — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:37:09 GMT

This pdf file includes decriptions of all the retreat classes offered at this year's SOAR.

Low Tech, High Satisfaction Spinning Brochure

Amy Clarke Moore — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:39:42 GMT

Free Spinning Brochures

Spin•Off magazine provides two brochures to teach you how to spin, and inform you about the techniques, tools, and terms you need to know.

Spin•Off magazine and its publisher, Interweave Press, have created these brochures for the general advancement of the spinning community. Although the information is copyrighted, Interweave Press grants you unlimited reprint permission, but the brochures cannot be sold without written permission from Interweave Press. Contact Karen Brock at kbrock@interweave.com for permissions.

Brochure Printing Instructions

The brochures are saved as Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) files and you need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view or print them.

Help with Adobe PDF Files

For the best appearance, we recommend printing these two-page files on legal-size paper (8 ½" x 14") in landscape orientation. Print one page on each side of the paper, and then fold the page in thirds to create a brochure. Your local copy shop can also create brochures for you if you provide them these files on a diskette.

The brochures can be printed on letter-size paper (8 ½" x 11") in landscape orientation. But before printing, make sure the "Shrink oversize pages to paper size" option is checked in the Print dialog box.

Click here for the pdf for Introduction to Spinning (1.7 mb)

Lo-tech, High Satisfaction (1.3 mb)

NOTE: These are high-resolution PDF files and may take more than one minute to download. If a file takes too long to download, you can use these instructions to save the file instead.

Spin-Off Index 1977-2000

Amy Clarke Moore — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:45:41 GMT

Download a pdf of the Spin-Off 1977-2000 Index and search for articles published in Spin-Off.

Spin-Off 2004-2008 Index

Amy Clarke Moore — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:43:37 GMT

Download a pdf of the Spin-Off 2004-2008 Index and search for articles published in Spin-Off.

Spin-Off 2003 Index

Amy Clarke Moore — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:41:59 GMT

Download a pdf of the Spin-Off 2003 Index and search for articles published in Spin-Off.

Spin-Off 2002 Index

Amy Clarke Moore — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:39:10 GMT

Download a pdf of the Spin-Off 2002 Index and search for articles published in Spin-Off.

Spin-Off 2001 Index

Amy Clarke Moore — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:16:24 GMT

Download a pdf of the Spin-Off 2001 Index and search for articles published in Spin-Off.

Nahuala Spinning by Harry and Olive Linder

Amy Clarke Moore — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 23:50:56 GMT

Originally published in the 1978 issue of Spin-Off, this article has a great illustration of a Guatemalan spinner wearing a rodillera (a knee-length handwoven and handspun wool skirt worn by Guatemalan men).