The colorful debut from spinner Kroening teaches crafters how to make yarn using a drop spindle. The author breaks down how to use the simple instrument to turn raw fleece into thread, helping readers get started with advice on how to choose a fleece (matted wool is hard to spin, and kemp doesnt dye well), clean it (tease the fibers apart and soak them in warm water), and card it (she prefers using a blending board, which resembles a small easel with sharp-toothed tines on it). Step-by-step photos show how to use the spindle, which dangles in the air from a strand of wool that tightens into yarn as one spins the tool. The authors variations on drop spindle technique are a highlight, showing how to incorporate beads, sequins, and other embellishments. She also shows how to adjust the way one feeds wool to the spindle to create different yarn textures; for example, intermittently adjusting the angle of ones wrist downward as one pushes the wool creates a thick-and-thin thread that leaves tufts in the yarn. The bounty of photos ensure readers will know how every step should look, and Kroenings knowledge of the craft impresses. This makes yarn spinning easy.
* Publisher's Weekly *
Using a drop spindle is a great way to spin our own yarn without investing in an expensive wheel. The book explains how to clean and prepare fleece, gives tips to beginners, shoes us how to ply and dye yarn then add beads, sequins and other decorative elements for a modern artistic finish.
* Machine Knitting Monthly, January 2023 *
An excellent introduction to spinning with a drop spindle.
Unlike some authors who are didactic with methodology you are given options in things like how to hold a spindle to suit you. The 'why' of following procedures is explained which led to a couple of lightbulb moments and explained why instructions from other authors resulted in a messy failure. Beautiful photography of each stage of taking fibre from fleece to yarn encourages you to start from scratch rather than relying on processed rolags. Lots of practical tips and the odd warning made this such a great read that I look forward, with confidence, to accepting next time my local farmer offers a fleece.
-- Alison Finch * Customer Review *
This is an amazing book both for beginners and more experienced spinners. It covers just about everything from equipment, methods of colour blending using carder, drum carder and blending boards, spinning, plying and even dyeing. I would definitely recommend.
-- Sally Dopson * Customer Review *
Colourful and very well illustrated, this book is ideal for the beginner spindle spinner who wishes to create the latest bold and beautiful art yarns, but doesnt want to invest at this early stage in a spinning wheel.
Chapters are logically arranged and the advice is concisely written and sound. Assuming no prior knowledge of spinning, the first part of the book covers choosing and preparing fleece, carding and blending, then choosing your spindle and how to get spinning. Ample clear, step-by-step photographs are provided, making mastering the techniques shown very straightforward. A wide range of necessary techniques are covered, including choosing and then scouring your fleece, the use of a picker, flicker carder, blending board and drum carder. Conventional and Andean plying are explained, followed by spinning art yarns. Auto-wrapping, cloud spinning, lock spinning, slub yarns, beaded yarns, core spinning and beehives are all covered too. These techniques take some experimentation and practice on either a wheel or a spindle, but are well-described and should enable the reader to give them a good try.
The book concludes with a short section on dyeing and a gallery of woven or knitted projects using the art yarns described.
-- Christina Chrisholm, Online Guild * Association of Guilds for Spinners, Weavers and Dyers *
