Spinner's Book of Yarn Design. Techniques for Creating 80 Yarns

It's here! Sarah Anderson's book is here!

This must be the most beautiful book about yarns I've ever seen. Most yarns are different shades of white, or they have small accents of other colors. Still it's not a "colorless" book. The lay out is clear and interesting on the 256 stunning pages. The text seems to be a nice mixture of facts and personal thoughts.

The are 64 reference cards with short instructions in the book. I like this a lot. You can take the cards with you when spinning away from your home or studio.

There is a chapter about fiber preparation using flick carders, combs, carders and drum carders, blending colors, blending fibers, drafting techniques, plying.

Spinners have been wondering what the cover would look like, as the publisher's site (Storey) showed another cover than some of the book shops. So here it is:

Sarah Anderson is an awesomely good spinner. You can see that in the beautiful photos. They mostly taken by John Polak who also did the extremely informative photo job on Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook (Deborah Robson and Carol Ekarius).

I haven't had time to use the book for learning a new spinning technique yet, but from what I've had time to read so far I will not have difficulties in understanding the theory. If I can't actually spin the yarn I want it can't be Sarah Anderson's fault.

Can't wait!

Mail from Book Depository yesterday - "dispatched to you"! Can't wait! I wonder how long it'll take?

For my granddaughter

My first grandchild was born five days ago. A little girl! I'm so happy, need I say that?

I was spinning a thread I thought would become part of a yarn for my Certificate in Handspinning. I didn't know what fiber it was, except that my hands said it was Merino and something else. So I asked the dyer, Jon Dunn-Ballam of EasyKnits. Merino-Cashmere he said.

Perfect for a little girl! I changed my mind and Navajo plied to keep the colors for a selfstranding yarn. I like it very much, as I like most of what Jon dyes.

Now I'm planning what to knit from it. A vest? A small cardi? I'll let it wait for a couple of days until it talks to me.

Wool links

Just a reminder: Woolsack has an outstanding list of links to sheep and wool sites. Here's a new one, about assessing fleeces. Please contact Jane at Woolsack if you have a link to share!

Winter can be nice

In fact, I like our cold, snowy winters. It's a time for just watching light and shadows in daytime, and not doing very much in the evenings. Gaining strength for the the intense spring.