A friend recently asked me how and why I rewound commercial balls of wool with a nostepinne. HOW: First, I wrap a bit of the yarn around a stone or something else that gives a bit of weight to the end of the outer strand. The photo above shows my… Read More »Nostepinne
I am down to the last strokes. The body is now knit and I have almost finished the first sleeve of this top-down stranded knit sweater. The pattern is “Agnes” by Kirstin Wiola Ødegård. I have knit lots of stranded knit mitts over the years but this is only the… Read More »On my Needles
In my world a Tussie Mussie is a fibre preparation method I developed for Eri silk sliver. No special equipment is required, just my hands. At first glance you would think a Tussie Mussie would result in an awful tangled mess. Surprisingly it doesn’t. Instead it helps you to keep… Read More »What is a Tussie Mussie?
I have taken a deep dive into stranded knitting lately. It is how I get my “colour fix”, since I am no longer dyeing my own yarns. Until now I had been keeping one colour on one side of me and the other colour on the other side. Then every… Read More »Stranded Knitting
This post is precipitated by a higher than normal number of inquiries over the past few months from people interested in learning to spin. So, for others out there who are wondering where to start, how to find an instructor, what equipment you will need in the beginning, etc. this… Read More »Spinning, Where to Start
In workshops I often observe students who attach the end of the singles to a piece of velcro while they take a pause in their spinning. This more often than not makes a bit of a mess in their singles and causes a “fluffy” spot. In my own practice, I… Read More »Spinning tip…
In my silk workshops I often meet spinners who have tried spinning silk at some point along the way but, after struggling with the fibre, they have written it off as being just too difficult. I did the same with cotton a few decades ago. In fact I was so… Read More »Revisiting a Fibre or Technique, Defining Moment #8
Shameless self-promotion……In May 2021 I had the pleasure of working with Felicia Lo and her team at the School of SweetGeorgia (SOS) The result is an online video where I share techniques and thoughts regarding how to spin a better yarn. https://www.schoolofsweetgeorgia.com/courses/nuances-to-spinning-better-yarns/ Some of the learning includes: the need to… Read More »Nuances to Spinning a Better Yarn
Fibre prep’d and ready to spin.
Because the yarn at the beginning and the end of my skeins were never quite as nice as the rest of the yarn, I used to discard the first and last few yards of yarn of each skein. Because I don’t like waste, a few years ago I started to… Read More »Plying Hint