Recent


Year in Review: Saxon Blue!

If 2017 was the year I fell in love with cotton, 2018 was the year I fell in love with indigo, saxon blue, and all things overdyeing.

Roving Reporter: Icelandic Wool and Turkish Spindles in Milwaukee

Traveling the country to fiber events is my favorite way to try to spinning tools, fall in love with new fibers, and meet other wool-obsessed folk.

National Craft Month: Spinning Freedom on a Deserted Island

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what spinning tool would you need?

How One Handspinner Released Her Handspun Yarn from Time Out

As Miriam shows, even if the handspun yarn has lingered in “time out” for years, it is not too late to reimagine it into a favorite project.

Re-Creating 18th-Century Weaving: Fulling Cloth and Shearing Swatches

Spin Off Winter 2019 included an article chronicling Sarah Wroot’s adventures in weaving handspun singles, fulling cloth with a wooden mallet, and more as she re-created an eighteenth-century textile.

Her Handspun Habit: A Handspun Yarn Quickie

Sit at the wheel, fiber in hand, with nary a plan, nor even a purpose, in mind, other than satisfying the itch for a bit of time spent making handspun yarn.

How to Spin and Knit with Control: Sample, Sample, Sample

A spinning teacher taught me to tape my control sample to an index card, noting down the wheel, whorl size, takeup method, and other key details.

Running Before You Can Walk in Handspun Socks

After completing my first handspun vest, I wanted to use up the last bits of vest yarn in a pair of socks. Here's how I planned the pair.

Textured Knitting Stitches and Handspun

Trial and error taught me a lot about dyeing yarn when I made my first handspun vest, and about plying when I made my first handspun socks. These lessons helped me on my second handspun vest, and then textured knitting stitches disguised less-than-perfect