Productive Spindling explores popular top whorl, bottom whorl, and Turkish spindles, getting you started and then amping up your techniques for efficiency. Spindlers will find many useful tips for all kinds of fiber, on spindle choice, drafting, joins, plying and finishing. Packed with photos to show technique, spindles, yarn, and finished tiems by the author and the worldwide spindling community!
Enjoying a resurgence in popularity thanks to the current trend of DIY crafts, the hand spindle remains one of the most productive, versatile, and convenient tools for creating stunning fiber arts from home, as this beautifully illustrated guide from a veteran spinner and spindle aficionado demonstrates. With step-by-step instructions, this essential manual details the basic steps of spinning and then advances to the more complicated spinning wheel, showing how to use the spindle to make specific types of yarn, explaining traditional spindle spinning techniques, and detailing five simple projects designed to instill confidence in creating a variety of yarns with this simple tool. Combining fascinating historical narratives, traditions, and cultures from around the globe with vivid photography, this all-encompassing tour of the spindle also boasts easy-to-follow, contemporary techniques and styles that affirm the tool's enduring legacy.
Spinning is a practical, fascinating and satisfying hobby with continuing appeal in an age of mass production. It is a comprehensive spinning primer written by a leading New Zealand spinner with an international reputation as a teacher and craftsperson. This book describles a physical skill clearly and concisely and her instructions are illustrated by over one hundred step-by-step photographs and diagrams. In addition to advice on spinning wool with a variety of techniques, she offers chapters on the use of other fibers and novelty yarns, and on dyeing. There is also an introduction to the craft of felting and a useful selection of patterns for knitting , crocheting and weaving your own handspun yarn.
Written by one of the world's leading experts, Handbook of yarn production: technology, science and economics is an authoritative and comprehensive guide to textile yarn manufacturing. The book is designed to allow readers to explore the subject in various levels of detail. The first three chapters provide an overview of yarn production, products and key principles. The major part of the book then reviews in detail the production processes for short-staple, long-staple and filament yarns.There are also chapters on quality control and the economics of staple-yarn production. The final part of the book consists of a series of appendices which provide in-depth analysis of key topics with detailed technical data and worked examples which is an invaluable reference in itself for anyone concerned with the behaviour, performance and economics of a textile mill. Handbook of yarn production: technology, science and economics is a standard work for both yarn manufacturers and those researching and studying in this important area of the textile industry. A practical and authoritative new handbook for yarn manufacturing Shows how problems can arise and how to deal with them Includes invaluable technical data, calculations, worked examples and case studies
Footbinding was common in China until the early twentieth century, when most Chinese were family farmers. Why did these families bind young girls' feet? And why did footbinding stop? In this groundbreaking work, Laurel Bossen and Hill Gates upend the popular view of footbinding as a status, or even sexual, symbol by showing that it was an undeniably effective way to get even very young girls to sit still and work with their hands. Interviews with 1,800 elderly women, many with bound feet, reveal the reality of girls' hand labor across the North China Plain, Northwest China, and Southwest China. As binding reshaped their feet, mothers disciplined girls to spin, weave, and do other handwork because many village families depended on selling such goods. When factories eliminated the economic value of handwork, footbinding died out. As the last generation of footbound women passes away, Bound Feet, Young Hands presents a data-driven examination of the social and economic aspects of this misunderstood custom.
Jacey Boggs helps you bring textured and novelty yarns to the next level in Spin Art. Inside you'll learn all the secrets behind her exciting new fusion of traditional spinning and envelope-pushing creativity. The yarn styles explored in this comprehensive spinning guide are as well made as they are inventive. Jacey walks you through each of her techniques, with a refreshing mixture of quirky, fanciful, and unexpected designs that are always skillfully constructed. Inside you'll discover: • How to create innovative, eye-catching single and plied yarn styles, including wraps, beehives, bumps, racing stripes, loops, bubblewrap, multiplied, and more. • Detailed technical instruction with step-by-step photos with finished yarn and swatch close-ups. • Jacey's bright personality and motivational tips to inspire all spinning enthusiasts to unleash their creative spirit. Traditional spinners will love Jacey's adventurous spirit and attention to expert technique, while textured-yarn spinners will love Jacey's wild designs and solid construction. As a bonus, the instructional DVD provides additional handspinning demonstration and commentary to complement the techniques in the book. Jacey has bottled the energy and expertise of her highly sought after workshops into a personal, at-home workshop experience for you.
