Spin-Off

There are few things that excite spinners more than color. Whether your penchant is for ultra-saturated hues, dusty jewel tones, or sheepy shades, much of our work focuses on creating and using color. And not all of those colors come easily. In fact, I’d say that even the most experienced, color-obsessed spinners I know struggle at times with a dye recipe or how best to use a beautiful handpainted braid. Like any creative journey, it’s sometimes this struggle that leads our work off the beaten path and in exciting new directions. In this issue, we are celebrating the quest for color! Diné shepherd Nikyle Begay invites us to learn about natural color in Navajo-Churros—brown, blue, and beyond. Eileen Hallman shares her methods for expanding the palette of colors you can get…

“Wow!” My exclamation reverberates across the living room, startling my husband and two cats. It’s a quiet Monday night. Work is done. The toddler is asleep. Bargello Needlepoint: A Pattern Directory for Dramatic Creations is propped open on the couch, turned to one of the beginner designs: flame. I’ve done the first few rows in bright reds and oranges on a blank bookmark I picked up from the craft store. Bargello Needlepoint is an ode to a centuries-old needle craft that uses color fades and relatively simple stitches to create eye-popping patterns. After reading the brief introduction and materials description, I was off to the races, looking over the stitches before jumping into my first design. If I approached craft in a more measured way, I would probably have done a sampler…

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Designer and pattern Sandra McIver, Plum Perfect from her book, Knit, Swirl! Fiber I created three yarns for this project. The first yarn is a natural brown Merino purchased at the Monterey County Wool Show. The first carding was with the wool only. I added turquoise silk noil and green mohair locks purchased from Eugene Textile Center on a second carding. The second yarn is the same natural brown Merino carded once by itself. The third yarn is a commercially prepared mystery wool that I dyed with leftover dyes at the end of a guild dye day. Wheel system Majacraft Little Gem 21:1 for the singles; Ashford e-Spinner for plying. Drafting method Woolen, long draw, occasionally pinching the twist near the orifice but most of the time not actually double-drafting. Singles direction Z-spun. Ply wraps…

The virtues ascribed to the lotus plant (Nelumbo nucifera) in Asian history and lore are boundless. Every part of the plant has utility and virtue, whether medicinal, nutritional, spiritual, or all three. And it is beautiful, with pure, stately blossoms rising above large circular leaves, whole vast lakes of them. The flowers are harvested daily for religious and decorative uses. But overlooked for centuries, at least in the Western world, is the cloth woven from its fibers. Besides all the aforementioned virtues, fabric woven from lotus fiber is wrinkle resistant, waterresistant, breathable, sturdy but sinuous, and comfortable in every way. It’s said that in villages across India, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Thailand, the fiber has been harvested and crafted into special ritual cloth since ancient times. And perhaps that’s true. The practice had…

This story starts like an old one, a story of handspun garment design and rejuvenation that begins, “Joseph had a little overcoat. It was old and worn. So, he made a jacket out of it and went to the fair.” Through the story, Joseph’s jacket is remade again and again. He should have tried dyeing! Piece dyeing is a way to refresh a garment, unify a textile created with many odd bits of yarn, or alter a palette of many shades in a previous over-dye experiment. It is also a way to recover from an “oops!” color combination. Samples are a nice thing in a well-planned life, but, of course, sampling doesn’t always happen. There is an enthusiasm that moves us from the wheel to the loom or needles! Piece dyeing offers…