Guest Blog

Craft Daily is Here!

Amy Clarke Moore — Wed, 15 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT

With all the great spinning workshops that Interweave keeps putting out, my video library is outgrowing my bookshelf space. Fortunately, the folks in our online education department have come up with a brilliant solution. They've just launched our new Craft Daily site! This means that I can watch any of our spinning workshops with just a click of the mouse with 24/7 streaming. What's even better, I can take these videos with me anywhere. I've invited Annie Hartman Bakken to tell you more about Craft Daily:



Watch a preview of how Craft Daily works, with Online Education Manager Laura Esposito.

CraftDaily.com

I feel like the new generation of spinning is here. Craft Daily is a video streaming site for spinners, weavers, knitters, beaders, quilters . . . all the crafts that you're currently pursuing. Whether you're a new spinner or have been spinning for years, there are videos for every skill level. Learn how to spin on a handspindle with Maggie Casey or Abby Franquemont or how to spin a complex cabled yarn with Judith MacKenzie or Jacey Boggs. It's all here.

If you've ever had the luck of attending a spinning class, the benefits of the visual spinning experience is priceless. You can see how the instructor maintains the drafting triangle and all the subtlities of spinning that are challenging to put into words and text. It all seems so easy when you see it done!



	Watch Judith MacKenzie demonstrate spinning on CraftDaily.com.

Craft Daily brings those spinning classes to practically any device that supports a strong Internet connection (Mac, PC, iOS). You can watch How to Card anytime. Let's say you're on the lightrail, and you're trying to remember exactly how Norman Kennedy holds his handcards while carding. Well, log on to Craft Daily and watch the video right on the lightrail. Yes, folks, it's that easy.

The Craft Daily site also allows you to build a library of your favorite videos, so you can keep track of those you've seen and want to watch again. The Craft Daily site is brand-new, so go check it out. You can watch previews of the videos to see if they're something that interests you. Plus, you can leave helpful comments on each video for other spinners. I'll be there. Probably for another twelve hours!

—Annie Hartman Bakken, associate producer of Knitting Daily TV and Interweave's yarn division marketing manager

Craft Daily has videos for knitters, weavers, quilters, crocheters, beaders, and even metalsmiths—so whether you're knitting, weaving, crocheting, or even making jewlery with your handspun yarn you'll find videos to help you do what you want to do, when you want to do it!

Happy Spinning!

Meet Lisa, the new editor of Interweave Knits magazine

Amy Clarke Moore — Wed, 08 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT

The right designs, the right yarn

We've invited Lisa Shroyer, the new editor of Interweave Knits magazine, to introduce herself and share her plans for upcoming issues.

The Midsummer Aran by Ginevra Martin is featured in the Summer 2013 issue of Interweave Knits.

Publishing a single magazine issue is no quick process. Within that six to nine months—from the first submission call to designers, through the knitting, pattern-writing, technical editing, and photo shoots, to final file production and page design—much can change in the lives of the people working behind the scenes.

In the time it took to create the Summer 2013 issue of Interweave Knits, we've had a fairly significant change on staff—Eunny Jang, the former editor, stepped down and I took her place. I am thrilled to move into this new role—it's a culmination of my years of work in the knitting industry and in publishing. Having been part of Interweave Knits for years, I can reflect on where we've been and what we've done. And now I'm ready to take us forward.

	The Open Eye Tunic by Deborah Helmke is featured in the Summer 2013 issue of Interweave Knits.

I am a lifelong knitter and maker, and come from a family steeped in the fiber crafts, including spinning and weaving. Though knitting has been my personal focus, I know too much about yarn, about sheep, about dyeing, to ever feel very far from the spinner in my life—my mom. She's always offering to lend me a wheel, with that mischievous sparkle in her eye.

Yarn will be a big part of my approach to editing Knits. Choosing the right designs, the right yarn, then the right palette are the three steps to putting together a collection. What does a woolen-spun heather add to a sweater? What feeling does it imbue the stitches with? What does a bouncy cabled Merino in a clear saturated color make you feel? Out of all the options for yarns, my job will be to pick one. Just one yarn in one color for that lace pullover, one chance to make you see the design the way I see it in my head. I hope you tune in and weigh in!

Spinning and Dreaming in Color

Anita Osterhaug — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:00:00 GMT

Spinning and Dreaming in Color

Anita's advancing twill sample with handspun silk handkerchiefs.

I started spinning because of color. I visited a spinning shop with a friend and fell in love with a raspberry-colored bump of Lincoln roving, so I rented a wheel, signed up for lessons, and 20+ years later my love affair with fiber and color continues. (Alas, the Lincoln was too scratchy for the shawl that I planned and graces my stash to this day.) I wonder how many other spinners started by visiting a shop or gathering and catching fiber fever from piles and walls of exuberantly colored tops and rovings.

As I learned to spin, I learned that color deepens as a dyed fiber compresses into yarn. I learned to blend dyed fibers to create new colors, how to spin and ply to preserve the color changes in gorgeous space-dyed tops, how to predict and use visual blending of colors in my mostly knitted projects.

	John Mullarkey's inkle and pin-loom woven rainbow "boa" from the May/June issue of Handwoven.

When I learned to weave, I found new color possibilities. The interlacement of warp and weft create different color interactions than knitting or crocheting with a single strand of yarn. Weaving spurred new experiments in spinning. I took a stack of dyed silk handkerchiefs, cut them into long strips, spun one after another to create repeating color changes, then wove a pattern with black silk to see what would happen. I warped stripes of multi-colored handspun and solid-color yarns from my stash and wove handsome scarves. Right now, I'm plying Romeldale singles in Easter egg colors with whisper-fine white kid mohair and dreaming of a twill or lacey summer shawl.

The shawl will wait a bit because I'm also putting the finishing touches on the May/June issue of Handwoven, which is all about color. And that's fine because the issue is packed with inspiration for my future spinning and weaving projects: Nancy Roberts explains how to dye a knitting blank for weaving color effects; handspun, handwoven samples from Sarah Lamb show a few of the unique effects handspinners can create in weaving, a clever inkle and pin-loom woven rainbow "boa" by John Mullarkey cries out for handspun yarn, and myriad other projects explore the dance of color and fiber. If you're a weaving spinner, I hope you'll join me for this upcoming color adventure, and the adventures to come.

The precious resource: yarn

Anne Merrow — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 10:53:00 GMT

We've invited Anne Merrow, Interweave spinning and knitting video producer and eMag editor, to share some exciting details about our workshop video with Lily Chin.

Lily explains the magic length of yarn needed for the long-tail cast-on.

As a world-renowned knitter and crocheter, Lily Chin goes through a lot of yarn. It takes me a lot longer to use up my handspun than it does to spin and ply it, but Lily might be able to keep pace with my spinning wheel!

With so much yarn running through her fingers, Lily has learned a lot of tricks, which she shares in her new videos The Knitter's Toolbox: Lily Chin's Techniques and Tricks for Savvy Knitters and The Crocheter's Toolbox: Lily Chin's Techniques and Tricks for Savvy Crocheters. Some will make your life easier and some will make finished garments more polished, but my favorites are the ones that save yarn.

The Long-Enough Tail

When I have barely enough handspun to knit a project, I wind up doing the cast-on over and over— even though it makes even the best handspun look a little tired after the third try. It just seems like such a waste to have more than a few inches languishing at the end of my needles.

So when Lily showed me a little formula that helped me estimate the right amount of yarn for my long-tail cast-ons, it saved me a lot of ripping out. Lily explained that because of the geometry of a knitted stitch, I could get pretty close by multiplying the width of the cast-on edge by three and adding ten percent. Lily explains just why this trick works and shows you other uses for this rule of thumb in The Knitter's Toolbox.

By reserving yarn for seaming before the foundation chain, Lily saves yarn-and weaving in.

Seams Smart

When it comes to the end of a knitting or crochet project, I just hate to stop early in order to leave enough yarn for seaming. Instead of guessing on seaming yarn at the end, Lily has figured out how to plan for seaming yarn from the very beginning. At the beginning of the cast-on or foundation chain, she measures off enough yarn to join pieces at the end, saving yarn and also eliminating two extra tails that would need to be woven in.

I've been knitting and crocheting for years, but the new ideas in Lily's videos have changed the way I wield a hook and needles. From new ways of starting a project to clever ideas for measuring gauge, The Knitter's Toolbox and The Crocheter's Toolbox are full of terrific tips. Check them out before you start your next knitting or crochet project!

Learning to spin, take two

Amy Clarke Moore — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:00:00 GMT

We invited Lory Widmer Hess of Chestnut Ridge, New York, to share her insights as she learned to spin on her second attempt. Lory is the Managing Editor for the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America.

Realizing the potential of spinning

Lory Widmer Hess

My first attempt to learn to spin, on a homemade drop spindle in a Waldorf teacher training program, ended in total frustration. Years later I asked my husband, a lapsed but capable spinner, to show me on a wheel. His method was to sit down and spin away, telling me to copy him. But when I sat down at the wheel, I felt I was facing a monster that either snatched my fiber away or sulkily refused to take hold of it at all. I gave up.

When I heard about a year-long course at the Fiber Craft Studio near my home in Chestnut Ridge, New York, though, I jumped at the chance. Given a whole year, I might make some progress.

	The Fiber Craft Studio classroom. Photo: Shana Welkin Kestrel.

Our class of eighteen women met on one Saturday per month, slowly following the transformation of an entire silver-gray Romney fleece that we washed, teased, carded, and finally began to spin. In further stages we would go into the process of dyeing and knitting a garment; but I had to get over the spinning hump first.

I took up the drop spindle once more. I tried to trust the weight of the spindle, letting it do its work while I did mine: finding the right rhythm between motion and stillness, and sensing the right amount of fiber to feed to the twist. As beginners tend to do, I fed it too much and the yarn clumped up, then too little and it broke. But when I found the right balance, it was as though something outside me met its counterpart within; the chaos of life was brought into order. Around me, groans of frustration followed by cries of joy showed that my classmates were experincing the same.

Lory with teacher Renate Hiller. Photo: Shana Welkin Kestrel.

As the wool transformed under our hands, personal stories of transformation began to emerge. A kindergarten teacher told how a fearful six-year-old boy in her class, who usually had his hands completely closed up, finally relaxed and opened them in the tub where she was washing a fleece. A tired mother of a toddler noticed how bits of carded wool liked to cling together, an image of the warmth and love she wanted to create in her home. For a troubled sleeper with thoughts spinning out of control, the act of spinning paradoxically brought focus and calm.

Our hands form our bridge between outer and inner; with them we can transform physical matter to make something new, never seen before in the world, but also representing our deepest creative selves. What would I create, now that I had finally learned to spin? More than just yarn, I suspected.

—Lory Widmer Hess

Spinner, Weaver, Myth-Buster

Anita Osterhaug — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 12:00:00 GMT

Spinner, Weaver, Myth-Buster

Sara Lamb, spinner extraordinaire, weaver, and myth-buster.

One of the "historical facts" that I have heard at spinning gatherings is that in colonial America it took six spinners to keep one weaver supplied with yarn. This may be a real historical fact: I don't know the source to verify it. But I know from experience that weaving consumes yarn at an impressive rate, so the thought of spinning enough yarn for a weaving project can be daunting. Add to that the assorted aphorisms about weaving with handspun—the oft-repeated belief that handspun can't be used for warp, for example—and a spinner might well hesitate to jump into the weaving fray.

Well, enter Sara Lamb, spinner extraordinaire, weaver, and myth-buster. I had the fun of working with our video team on Sara's latest video, Spin to Weave. Sara weaves almost exclusively with her own handspun yarn, a fact that is doubly impressive when you realize that most of her wardrobe is made from her own handwoven cloth. In the video, she demonstrates and explains how to produce miles of handspun yarn quickly for a variety of fibers, with a loose, serene drafting style that's satisfying and easy on the body. It's almost indescribable, but as you watch, you begin to feel it in your hands, and your feet begin to itch for a treadle.

	Lovely examples of Sara Lamb's handspun warp-faced fabric.

Sara's spinning is serene, but hers is a lively and curious mind, and we get the benefit of her experiments as she explodes many a myth about weaving with handspun. Contrary to popular belief, handspun makes wonderful warp. (After all, people have woven with it for 20,000 years!) Sara explains how to spin a warp yarn that won't break or fray, and how to finish the yarn so that it behaves in the warping process. She helps us get over the fear of "wasting" precious handspun through sampling or loom waste. Through dozens of woven samples, she explores how twist direction and consistency do and don't affect the final product, and she shows some of the myriad color effects that can be achieved in weaving when the yarn is spun with the cloth in mind.

And ultimately, that's the point. It does take time to spin for a weaving project, but if we wanted instant yarn, we wouldn't be spinning. When you master spinning to weave, when you spin with the cloth in mind, you can make handwoven items that are absolutely unique and uniquely yours. How much fun is that?

An ode to natural dyes

Amy Clarke Moore — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 12:00:00 GMT

We have invited Louise Young of South Range, Wisconsin, to share her vivid essay about the magic, frustrations, and joys of natural dyes.

Color

Louise Young enjoying a crisp autumn day.

On a clear autumn morning, a strong wind blows from the north, and the sky glows with the blue worshipped by long-ago druids. Summer's haze has been replaced by a crystalline landscape as precise as any Edward Hopper painting. Today, deadlines will go unmet. I pull on a sweatshirt and my old duck boots, and slam the screen door as I leave.

Black walnut trees in the hollow have been dropping fruit for over a week. Fresh from the tree, the walnuts are green, resembling limes in size, shape, and color. They even boast a citrus scent, although more lemon than lime. In less than five minutes, I fill a sack with dense fruit. At home, I'll use a knife to peel the fleshy hull from the walnuts—we'll eat these later—and deposit the hulls in a 5-gallon bucket. When I fill the bucket with water, ink-dark dye leaks from the bruised flesh. I leave the solution to soak for a few hours, and head back to the woods.


	A sweater (with detail below) that Louise knitted with yarn spun from a naturally colored fleece that was overdyed with walnut, cochineal, indigo, and goldenrod.

Wind dances through leaves, exposing a flash of sunlike color. An early witch hazel blooms, its spider-leg petals incongruous in this season of fruit. The brilliant yellow of this flower is the color that I seek. Among the many native plants that yield yellow dye, my favorite is goldenrod. Not only is this plant abundant but the blossoms are lovely even when crammed in a plastic grocery bag.

This year, most of the fleeces I spun were colored: tan, brown, or gray. A bath in goldenrod gives these yarns a warm glow but doesn't produce the sunshine yellow that I love. I decide to concentrate on stronger colors.

Cochineal was the first agricultural export of the Americas, its source not a plant but tiny insects that live on cactuses. I grind the mauve-colored, dried bugs into a powder that becomes bloodred when mixed with water. Cochineal is a rapid dye: ten minutes of boiling yields a vivid scarlet. I place gray and tan skeins in the dyebath but the cochineal is so intense that the two yarns emerge identical.

The final color in my palette is blue. Of all natural dyes, indigo is the most universal, the most ancient, and the most loved. Indigo in some form has been cultivated on every continent except Australia. This fact amazes me since dyeing with indigo is a tricky process: unlike most dyes, its color isn't readily released but must undergo a series of chemical reactions.

Naturally dyed fleece, naturally colored handspun, and handspun that was naturally dyed (along with a few autumn leaves).

The ancient secret to indigo dyeing is a substance that's cheap, easily collected, and universally available: urine. For my indigo dyeing today, I use prepared chemicals—less odorous than the old-fashioned urine method. Indigo in its raw state is dark blue, but when mixed with chemicals, the dyebath turns a sickly yellow-green color topped by an iridescent purple film. It doesn't seem a promising start, but dyeing with indigo is truly magical: while immersed in that unpretentious liquid, fibers absorb indigo particles. These particles remain pale green while underwater, but when the fiber is waved in the air, the green is transformed into a blue as clear as a grandmother's eyes.

It's nearly dark when I rinse my last skein and scour the dyepot. In a handful of hours, I've harvested the colors of this fall day and preserved them forever in fiber— and in my soul.

—Louise Young

A sneak peek at the new season of Knitting Daily TV

Amy Clarke Moore — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:00:00 GMT

We've invited Annie Hartman Bakken, associate producer of Knitting Daily TV, to share about the newest season of the Public Television show.

A sneak peek at the new season of Knitting Daily TV

Join host Eunny Jang and experts Kristin Omdahl and Clara Parkes for the 10th season of Knitting Daily TV.

Knitting Daily TV celebrates its tenth series on Public Television, and I couldn't be prouder. With each new series we've improved by listening to what our viewers want to see and making this program specifically for people who love to work with fiber. Each episode has more yarn knowledge, knitting and crochet techniques, and great guest stars than before. I hope you'll tune in to Series 1000 and enjoy watching it as much as I've had fun working on it.

Here's a sneak peek at some great segments geared towards spinners and fiber enthusiasts from the new season:

Yarn Spotlights: Each show has host Eunny Jang and yarn expert Clara Parkes meet up to talk about new yarns and fibers on the market. Although we showcase millspun yarns on this segment, the fiber characteristics and best uses described by Clara are great for spinners. You'll learn the difference between long wools and fine wools, handpainted verses kettle-dyed yarns, the difference between mercerized and non-mercerized cottons, worsted vs. woolen, and more. Learn what makes a yarn lofty and how that is different than softly spun. Find out what you can make out of chunky and bulky yarns that won't make you look chunky. My favorite yarn spotlight of the season talks about possum yarns from New Zealand. I won't spoil the surprise, but I'm definitely intrigued by this emerging line of fiber!

	Robyn Chachula demonstrates how to stiffen finely crocheted motifs for jewelry on episode 1004.

Quick Tips: Each episode of Knitting Daily TV also has a quick tip from Eunny Jang that offers all fiber artists a leg-up on their craft. You'll learn how to bind-off a knitting project with two unique techniques and how to make your bind-off stretchy for lace projects. You'll take a look at what gauge you should us for more drape, how to knit with more than one strand of yarn, and even some fun finishing techniques for fringe and embroidery. My personal favorite tip of this season was a tutorial about blocking a project that has more than one stitch pattern.

This season also has great how-to techniques on each episode from slip-stitches to Tunisian crochet, working with tencel yarns, colorwork, twined knitting, and much more. If you crochet with your fine yarns, you won't want to miss Robyn Chachula's lesson on stiffening crocheted motifs to make one-of-a-kind jewelry. And if you're a knitter, join Kristin Omdahl on this season's knitalongs for a lacey vest worked from the top down with easy shaping and a beautiful lace shawl that looks a lot more complicated than it really is! I'm casting on for this shawl now, hoping to finish it before the next season starts taping!

Catch this season of Knitting Daily TV on Public Television beginning this January, or purchase series 1000 on DVD. If you're not sure you'll love the show, try it out with an episode download to see what tips and techniques this show can offer you. All thirteen shows are available for download at the Spinning Daily Shop.

—Annie

Inside the Wooly World of Norman Kennedy

Anne Merrow — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 12:00:00 GMT

Inside the Wooly World of Norman Kennedy

We've invited Anne Merrow, Interweave spinning and knitting video producer and eMag editor, to share some exciting details about our second workshop video with Norman Kennedy.

Looking out the windows of this old Vermont barn, Norman Kennedy creates beautiful hard-wearing textiles, such as the wool wedding blankets woven and waulked in this video

My copy of Norman Kennedy's new video, From Wool to Waulking: Spinning Wool and Creating Cloth with Norman Kennedy arrived on my desk the other day. When I popped it into my video player and heard the first few notes of Norman's voice, it instantly took me back to his Vermont farmhouse and its trove of spinning wheels.

Beginning on his porch, with the morning light streaming through the windows, Norman began with raw fleece, sorting it and describing his plans for the choicest parts. My first surprise came when he stepped inside and demonstrated how he prepares wool for carding. Vigorously separating the locks with his fingers—picking, not teasing, he insists—he proceeded to shake baby oil onto his beautifully scoured fleece. As he carded the wool into rolls (rolags) and batts, Norman explained why he doesn't recommend lard for oiling wool but once resorted to used motor oil.

	Lightly oiled and expertly carded, Norman Kennedy's rolags are sheer bliss to spin.

Learning at Norman's Knee

Norman's unexpected advice, cheeky anecdotes, and irrepressible smile draw you into your own spinning experience, one in which a world-renowned expert on traditional spinning and textiles lets you in on the secrets he has gathered over a lifetime. Watch Norman prepare a rolag, adjust his spinning wheel, and make Shetland-style laceweight yarn just as he learned from a lady of Unst. See a traditional distaff in action, serving as a "third arm" to hold batts for easier spinning. Learn the steps to create high-twist yarn using a walking wheel, a traditional and especially satisfying way to spin, as freely and easily as dancing.

Flanking Norman are the wedding blankets that he wove from handspun, then finished during the taping of From Wool to Waulking. Photo by Kate Smith.

Waulking, by Hand

To complete the experience of this video workshop, Norman spun eight pounds of wool for weft, dyed warp yarn in a natural indigo, and wove a pair of wedding blankets. To finish the blankets, he gathered a dozen friends together in the weaving studio to waulk the fabric. Seated around a long wooden table, they pounded and passed the cloth hand to hand as Norman sang traditional waulking songs in Gaelic and English. Watching the group finish fabric in the same way it had been done for centuries, I could almost feel my hands thumping on the table and the yarns coming together in a warm fulled blanket.

"There's not many people know that," Norman commented. "Now there's a few people'll know it."

Putting Handspun to Work

Anita Osterhaug — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT

	Wouldn't this purse be great in a handspun, handpainted yarn?

Eds.—Weaving is a great way to put handspun to work. There is so much variation in the yarn we spin, it opens unlimited possibilities for woven cloth. We have invited Anita Osterhaug, editor of Handwoven, to share some of the magic that can happen when these two crafts come together.

Anita: When I learned to spin, I was told that all singles must be plied to produce a stable yarn UNLESS the yarn was intended for weaving. I was assured that a singles yarn used in knitting, for example, would cause the cloth to twist, whereas the over-and-under interlacement of weaving would cause the energy of the singles to balance and produce a flat cloth. And before the Industrial Revolution, when all yarn for a family’s needs had to be handspun, people didn’t spend unnecessary time to ply yarn for weaving.

As I learned more about spinning and working with handspun yarns, I learned that this rule has many exceptions. As Geoffrey Rush famously said in Pirates of the Caribbean, “It’s more of a guideline.” (In my family, this is always said with a squint and an expressive pirate “Arrrr.”) Renowned spinner, knitter, weaver, and frequent Spin-Off contributor Kathryn Alexander has produced a phenomenal body of work using energized singles for knitting. Not all historical textiles were made with singles yarn, and energy in singles can actually be used to produce woven textiles that are not flat.

Rebecca Fox's rug is an attractive use of Karakul roving.

All that said, weaving is a great way to put handspun to work. In many cases, you really can skip the plying step and get right down to the fast and satisfying work of producing beautiful cloth. You can put extra fleeces to work, weaving with roving, as Rebecca Fox did in her Karakul rug in the upcoming January/February issue of Handwoven. And weaving is a great way to make those special skeins go farther. You know, the ones where you splurged on a few ounces of some spectacular handpainted fiber, not enough for a whole project, but it was too beautiful to pass up. You can grab some coordinating yarn from your stash, warp it up on the simplest loom using your fancy handspun as well-placed accent stripes, and, voilà!, you’ll be modeling it to everyone’s admiration before you know it!

Weaving is fun, fast, and gives your handspun more ways to shine. And Handwoven is full of ideas for making textiles as unique as your yarn, articles on weaving and embellishment techniques, and stories of textile artists around the world to inspire your fiber adventures. I hope you’ll give it a try and see what new things your stash can do.

—Anita

Spin Flax and Cotton

Anne Merrow — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Spinning Through the Ages

We've invited Anne Merrow, Interweave spinning and knitting video producer and eMag editor, to share some exciting details about our upcoming workshop video with Norman Kennedy. Norman has spent his life travelling the world and learning traditional spinning and weaving techniques used to make cloth that needed to last a lifetime. We are very excited to be able to make his vast knowledge available to spinners with our new Interweave video.

Norman Kennedy's skills as a spinner, weaver, singer, and raconteur earned him the National Heritage Fellowship and recognition as a Master Traditional Artist by the Folk & Traditional Arts Program National Endowment for the Arts. Photo by Hester + Hardaway, Photographers.

Anne Merrow: Spinning always makes me feel like I'm practicing an ancient craft. With my upright double-treadle wheel and a braid of handpainted superwash top, I'm connected to the line of spinners before me, right?

But really, I'm a Jane-come-lately.

Spinning wheels are newfangled devices; why, they're only a millennium young! Wool spinning is about 5,500 years old in general and 700 years old in North America. If I really want to get connected to my spinning roots (as it were), I should break out some flax or cotton and a handspindle.

Historical Knowledge
Though he clearly didn't learn from the first spinners of flax and cotton, Norman Kennedy learned the techniques of the spinners and weavers who made textiles necessary for maintaining any home. From Cajun spinners, he discovered how to use a cotton bow to clean and open cotton fiber by hand. He practiced spinning cotton on a great wheel (also known as a walking wheel) outfitted with an accelerated minor's head. He learned to grow flax from seed, harvest it, and transform it into fine cloth in the old style, using flax brakes and hackles and distaffs.

	As Master Weaver at Colonial Williamsburg, Norman created textiles using the methods used in America's first years.

From his youth in Aberdeen, Scotland, Norman traveled throughout the British Isles and around the world learning spinning and weaving skills that were in danger of disappearing forever. By watching and asking questions, he preserved generations of textile skills—and through his new video workshop, Spin Flax and Cotton: Traditional Techniques with Norman Kennedy, he has given today's spinners the opportunity to do the same.

Spinning Yarns
In addition to his textile knowledge, Norman is well known as a performer. His reputation as a folk singer and raconteur is even better known in some quarters than his extraordinary textile knowledge. I winced when Norman told how New England homes were burned down by drying flax carelessly next to the hearth, and I chortled when he mentioned how Christopher Columbus's status as the son of a mere wool weaver made it even more difficult to secure support for his expedition to the Americas. (If only his family had been linen weavers or—better yet—cotton spinners!)

Spending a few hours with Norman Kennedy is as delightful as it is educational. Join the journey of discovery in Spin Flax and Cotton: Traditional Techniques with Norman Kennedy.

Looking forward to fall

Eunny Jang — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT


	Pluie Cardigan by Alex Capshaw-Taylor

Get Enthused and Go to It!

With so much potential, there are seemingly endless possibilities for using your handspun yarn, and yet, sometimes, it is hard to find a project worthy of your handspun. So, where to start? The Fall 2012 issue of Interweave Knits magazine has an abundance of beautiful knitting patterns that just may get you to pick up your needles and put your handspun yarn to good use. Don't feel intimidated by what may seem like elaborate knitting patterns, Interweave Knits editor, Eunny Jang, is here to share her positive approach to tackling projects that test your knitting skills.


Petite Four Pullover by Heather Zoppetti

Big Tile Pullover by Margaux Hufnagel

Aspen Satchel by Erica Schlueter

Eunny Jang: I'll say something right now: I don't believe in knitting being hard or easy.

Some projects require more concentration to make them come out right than others do, but I'm a firm advocate for the idea that anyone who can knit a stitch and purl a stitch can make pretty much anything he or she wants to. The first try at a new technique might look a bit wonky (that's what swatches are for!), but if you have good instructions—in person, on paper, or on-screen—and take it one step at a time, looking at your work and really thinking about what you're doing, you'll be able to do it, and do it well. I promise.

"Easy for her to say," you're thinking. But it's absolutely true. All knitting is just knits and purls and variations on them—maybe you need to knit two stitches at once instead of one, or insert the needle a little differently, or use two different colors of yarn, or rearrange the stitches before you knit them or purl them. Maybe you need to bring the yarn over the right needle before you knit the next stitch. A lot of things can influence how a stitch behaves and what it looks like, but the core is always the same: wrap the yarn around the needle (or scoop it up) and pull it through.

If you can do that, the really heavy lifting of building a coherent fabric, you can change and vary the movement however you want. All it takes is enthusiasm and a willingness to make mistakes. Luckily, our materials are mostly renewable: you can ravel your work and try again. This is a luxury—I learned that not all crafts are as forgiving of trial and error and experimentation last summer, when I tried my hand at building some simple furniture. Mistakes in woodworking are expensive and wasteful. Not so with knitting—so take advantage of it. Get enthused and go to it.

Interweave Knits is all about celebrating the enthusiastic knitter. We want to give you knowledge and ideas, new techniques and refinements to old ones, and projects that stretch your knitting skills. We want to give you the tools to really think about your knitting and to make your own discoveries. You just need to bring yarn, needles, and gusto—we'll do the rest.

This Fall issue of Interweave Knits is packed to the gills with fresh projects to bust any knitting rut: pretty fall-ready openwork to deep, luscious cables; fun low-relief textures to delicious knits that show off what old-school wool can do; and finally, simple-to-intricate colorwork patterns that will delight color lovers.

The projects in this issue cover a wide range of knitting techniques. Pick something you've never done before—intarsia, maybe, or slip-stitch knitting, or Aran-style cables, or controlling colors in a long-stripe yarn-and dive in. I'm rooting for you.

And be sure and subscribe to Interweave Knits today so you don't miss out on anything!

Happy knitting,

P.S. To see more of this issue check out the preview!

Our articles never grow old

Anne Merrow — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Worthy of hard-earned shelf space

Anne Merrow is editor of Interweave's spinning and knitting eMags. We've invited her here to share some of the treasures she's discovered in the pages of Spin-Off while researching for future interactive articles.

Charlene Schurch's Topflappen Vest from the Fall 1999 issue of Spin-Off.

Anne Merrow: Most of the magazines I own—the ones I keep rather than recycle—sit on my shelf gathering dust until they have taken up a whole bookcase of their own. (Having moved three times in the last year, I have to confess that some heavy boxes didn't make the cut.) When I open them up years later, I often wonder why they earned such a long time on my shelf.

By contrast, the 1999 year in Spin-Off feels so fresh that I had to double-check the dates on the front. Wrangling your first entire fleece, straight from the sheep, for the first time? Jane Fournier told me how back in Spring of 1999, in the same issue as Deb Robson's thoughtful piece on why rare sheep matter to spinners.

I see flax everywhere these days, so how could it have been over 10 years ago that Rita Buchanan offered six practical tips for making smooth linen yarn? And surely Harley Stevens's article "Preparing Raw Wool in 30 Minutes, or "The 'Heat 'em, Harley' Device" was written for the fast-paced digital age, not the summer of 1999.

Charlene Schurch's Topflappen Vest looks like a project I'd see at this fall's fiber festivals, but it debuted in Fall 1999 instead. The modular garment makes wonderful use of hand-dyed roving in mitered squares. I found lots of forgotten tips for using my favorite colorful painted rovings and yarns in this issue.

	Rust-colored Gonometa rufobrunnea moths from Botswana are included in Richard S. Peigler's article on silk in the Winter 1999 issue of Spin-Off.

The Winter 1999 issue is a particular favorite of mine. As I was editing the most recent issue of the eMag SpinKnit, the 11-page article on wild silks by Richard S. Peigler just blew my mind. The number of different kinds of silk found around the world, the variety of their colors, and the beauty of those silk moths opened a new world beyond the tussah and Bombyx that I thought I knew. Earlier this year, Sara Lamb brought some of those kinds of silk into the studio for the taping of her Spinning Silk video.

Now that all these great issues from 1999 are available as a Collection CD, perhaps it is time they earn a space on your shelf as well.

A New Spin on Knitting Daily TV, Yarn Spotlight

Amy Clarke Moore — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 11:00:00 GMT

A New Spin on Knitting Daily TV, Yarn Spotlight

Clara Parkes joins host Eunny Jang as a yarn expert for the newest season of Knitting Daily TV.

We've invited Annie Hartman Bakken, associate producer of Knitting Daily TV, to share about the newest yarny addition to the Public Television show all about fiber.

Annie Hartman Bakken: The newest season of Knitting Daily TV has something that will make yarn lovers and spinners take notice. Clara Parkes joins host Eunny Jang as a yarn expert for Yarn Spotlight, a segment aimed at dissecting yarn and fiber, their characteristics, and their best uses. Garbed in lab coats, Clara and Eunny play mad scientist in spotlights full of information about yarn twists, plying, and much, much more.

In episode 903, Clara and Eunny are in the knitting lab talking about locally millspun fibers. Featured in the episode is yarn spun from North American natural bison down and nylon. It is hard to believe this tough animal makes such deliciously soft fiber that can be used for a variety of projects, including lace.

The information Clara offers in Knitting Daily TV's Yarn Spotlight is especially useful to the spinner who wants to learn more about their medium.

(Please visit the site to view this media) Watch Eunny and Clara discuss locally millspun yarns.

Perhaps you'd like to experiment with combining fibers, making multi-plied yarns, or even treating your fiber to be washable. Hear what Clara has to say about camelids, wools, and even silk. Learn how your yarn can best be used for not only knitting projects, but crochet and weaving as well. Will your project pill? Does this yarn have good stitch definition? Can you spin a yarn that has a delicate halo? Clara's expertise is top-notch, and you're guaranteed to come away from each episode with newfound knowledge about the craft you love.

Knitting Daily TV Series 900 is available on DVD, or you can download individual episodes instantly to your computer. Go into the knitting lab with Clara and Eunny this season, and be sure to let us know what you think!

—Annie

Crochet and handspun yarn

Pattie Graver — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Rosanne Anderson used chaffey wool to create the cat baskets included in our new Spinning for Crochet eBook.

The start of everything

Handwoven magazine's former managing editor Pattie Graver is an accomplished weaver and spinner to boot. In her retirement, she has been offering invaluable help around the Spin-Off office. We have invited her to share with you about our latest eBook and memories of how she started out in the world of fiber.

Pattie: Do you remember your very first experience in our wonderful world of fiber? When I paused to think about this, I was surprised by the answer. It was all about crochet! In the late 1960s, I learned to crochet in order to have a hot-pink scarf to wear with my red velvet coat. I know that I'm dating myself, but I can remember walking into a yarn shop when you had to ask for your yarn from a neatly dressed woman standing behind the counter. There was no fondling of skeins, and compared to the tactile event we have all come to know and love, yarn shopping was a rather stiff and formal experience. I also recall making a few baby blankets in fluorescent colors and a "hippie" shawl with a huge crochet hook. I must admit that although these memories make me smile, I'm glad those days are behind me.

	Regina Rooney's version of this shawl, which has been made by four generations of women in her family, is included in our Spinning for Crochet eBook.

Along with the lady standing behind the yarn-shop counter, I left my interest in crochet back in the 1960s. I haven't crocheted much since then except to occasionally embellish the edges of a handwoven piece or finish off something from my potholder loom. Though lately, as my curiosity in handspinning grows, so does my interest in crochet. I love the portability and the fact that you can create wonderful things from small amounts of handspun. When I saw Spin-Off's new eBook Spinning for Crochet, I got to thinking how choosing a project from it would help me become a more skillful spinner. Instead of "getting what I get" from my spinning wheel, maybe I should spin with a purpose. An added bonus would be the brain workout I would undergo in order to actually produce a specific yarn. That would have to be more enjoyable than solving Sudoku puzzles or taking an algebra class just to fire up the neurons!

Besides, there is just something so radical about crochet that appeals to this aging flower child. The tools are so simple yet those rows of loops result in some stunning cloth. And, as more young people become interested in spinning, crochet, knitting, and other crafts, it makes me feel good to be among the hip crowd.

How about you? What are your thoughts on crochet, and do you have any stories of yarn shopping from the olden days?

By reserving yarn for seaming before the foundation chain, Lily saves yarn-and weaving in.

Rosanne Anderson used chaffey wool to create the cat baskets included in our new Spinning for Crochet eBook.

Guest Blog

Craft Daily is Here!

Meet Lisa, the new editor of Interweave Knits magazine

The right designs, the right yarn

Spinning and Dreaming in Color

Spinning and Dreaming in Color

The precious resource: yarn

The Long-Enough Tail

By reserving yarn for seaming before the foundation chain, Lily saves yarn-and weaving in. Seams Smart

Learning to spin, take two

Realizing the potential of spinning

Spinner, Weaver, Myth-Buster

Spinner, Weaver, Myth-Buster

An ode to natural dyes

Color

A sneak peek at the new season of Knitting Daily TV

A sneak peek at the new season of Knitting Daily TV

Inside the Wooly World of Norman Kennedy

Inside the Wooly World of Norman Kennedy

Learning at Norman's Knee

Waulking, by Hand

Putting Handspun to Work

Spin Flax and Cotton

Spinning Through the Ages

Looking forward to fall

Our articles never grow old

Worthy of hard-earned shelf space

A New Spin on Knitting Daily TV, Yarn Spotlight

A New Spin on Knitting Daily TV, Yarn Spotlight

Crochet and handspun yarn

Rosanne Anderson used chaffey wool to create the cat baskets included in our new Spinning for Crochet eBook. The start of everything

By reserving yarn for seaming before the foundation chain, Lily saves yarn-and weaving in.

Seams Smart

Rosanne Anderson used chaffey wool to create the cat baskets included in our new Spinning for Crochet eBook.

The start of everything