Saturday Morning Spinning – and a short book review – Aaron knits…and spins, and weaves.

July 6, 2013

Good morning everyone, is it hot enough for you? I’m doing my best to not complain too much about this heat. It would have been nice to have had some much warmer weather than we did back in late May and early June when my pool was open and practically unused. We’re trying to make up for that now though.

Before I get started doing any spinning this morning, and before the day gets too hot, I’m heading out for a walk. I have not been getting anywhere near as much exercise as I would like and I’m starting to feel it. Since it’s already over 70 degrees at 6AM, I may not do the entire 4 miles that I usually do, and I certainly won’t do it at the pace I normally like to do, but I need some movement this morning before I sit down to spin.

This morning I’m going to practice a few art yarn techniques that may come in handy later on this month, and I’ll be working from “The Spinner’s Book of Yarn Designs: Techniques for Creating 80 Yarns” by Sarah Anderson.

Have you seen this book yet? It’s chock full of “recipes” for all kinds of art yarns including spiral yarns, boucle’s, cable yarns, core yarns, and more. Sarah’s instructions are detailed and easy to understand, and the yarn samples done all in white, with color used only when it’s relevant to show the technique, puts the focus on the construction of the yarns. The photography throughout the book is very will done with step by step photos of each construction technique and with examples of each yarn serving as the backdrop for many of the pages.

At the back of the book are removable reference cards for each of the yarns and techniques. These are handy to have for spinners on the go who may not want to carry around the entire book. Although I’ve got to admit, having an e-book version means having less to carry around since my iPad goes with me just about everywhere. Luckily, there is an e-book available for my iPad as well.