I don’t know about you, but when I am faced with an online shop or fiber-fest booth filled with gorgeous tops, batts, or braids, it can be hard to choose. More often than not, I start building a palette. I arrive looking to purchase one or two colors and end up craving a dozen hues that together are greater than the sum of their parts. There are many wonderful books on color interactions, color harmonies, and the science of how we see color. I love learning more about color theory, but I also firmly believe that we also have an innate sense of color.
Spinners are spoiled for choice when it comes to the ways that we can build palettes and play with color. We can dye washed fleece, hand-paint combed tops, blend dyed fibers into colorful drumcarded batts, spin our skeins and dye them afterward. . . . We have endless opportunities to play!
Melissa Weaver Dunning showed us how to create some surprising Donegal tweeds in Spin Off Summer 2019. Moody, complex colors can be created using eye-popping primary and secondary colors.
For our fifth annual color issue, we invite you to take a deep dive into colorways! Do you love traditional color-blending techniques, such as tweeds, marls, and heathers? Have you been exploring ways to card and spin subtle colors without getting muddy skeins? What are your tricks and tips for getting multiple colors from a single dyepot? Would you like to share your best practices for creating gradient batts?
Do you have a great idea for a colorwork cowl, marled cardi, or polychrome throw pillows? We want to hear your ideas. Putting color to work in knitting, crochet, weaving, embroidery, and more is always important to spinners. Send us your best pitch—we’re ready!
—Kate Larson, editor
Share your article and project proposals for the Colorways issue of Spin Off.
Meagan Condon’s fantastic article “Carding a True Neutral” was published in Spin Off Fall 2023.
Submissions due: May 20, 2024
We are looking for:
- Feature articles—stories, profiles, history.
- Handspun projects—instructions using knitting, weaving, crochet, or other techniques with handspun yarn.
- How-to articles—tell us how it is done.
- Web content—if you have an idea for a shorter piece, about 300 to 500 words, please submit your proposal to us.
Have an idea that doesn’t fit our theme? Send that to us, too! We may be able to use it in an upcoming issue.
Use our convenient online submissions form to send us your article and project proposals and attach photos and sketches, too.
Forms and information:
Questions? Contact us at [email protected].
Online Submissions Form Spin Off Spring 2025
Submissions due: May 20, 2024
We will notify you of our decision: June 2024
Articles and projects due: September 2, 2024
Do you want to be added to the Spin Off Call for Submissions email list? Sign up here.