Hand Spinning: Essential Technical and Creative Skills

Hand spinning is a peaceful, wholesome and creative craft that can bring immense joy and satisfaction to a busy life. This beautiful book explains how to spin unique yarn using natural raw materials such as fleece, flax and silk. It aims to teach, encourage and inspire spinners to extend their skills and uncover the mystique surrounding the long draw, the hallmark skill of accomplishment in hand spinning. It includes over 200 supporting images and clear step-by-step instructions on spinning methods, fibre preparation, colour skills, dyeing, yarn structure, art and yarn design. It will bring inspiration and pleasure to all spinners, regardless of experience or expertise.|Gives clear and precise instructions for the long draw, worsted and core-spinning techniques that determine yarn quality and performance Outlines how to choose and prepare fleece, flax, silk and camelid fibre for hand spinning Includes proven definite colour skills that will personalize and enhance hand-spun work Describes dyeing animal and vegetable fibre and yarn, without special materials or equipment, using natural and synthetic dyes Encourages use of classic yarn structures such as boucle, gimp, coils, and crepe, as design features for unusual visual and textural effect Individual hand-spun work illustrates the concept of art yarn and the design process Suggests projects for the mindful spinner, from making a Shetland hap to creating art yarn that has meaning, artistry and purpose

Pam Austin has been spinning for over thirty years and is one of very few teachers of the long draw technique, the hallmark skill of accomplished hand spinning. She runs the Spinning School (www.spinningschool.org) teaching individuals and groups on location, and at her studio and workshop in Stoke Albany on the Leicester-Northamptonshire border in the UK.