Spin Control: review

Spinning is becoming one of my favorite things.
Luckily it is also one of a lot of peoples favorite things.

Now if you don't have friends in the area that can teach you, or if you learn better by reading, or if you just need a good book to remind you off all the things your friends thought you, well this is the book for you.

Amy King's book Spin Control helps to break down spinning into understandable pieces. From getting to know you fiber, learning just what that thing on your wheel is called, to how to create the finished object that you are looking for. Be that finished object yarn, a sweater or art.

I've mostly found myself mostly working with the drafting techniques.
They have helped to make my yarn a bit more even.

Even when using two different fibers I was able to get pretty much what I wanted.

The chapter on plying has a lot of useful information. Mostly I find myself working with a 2plys. They hold up well and are the easiest to start with. I still haven't gotten the hang of the Navajo Ply, but I'm sure it just takes practice.

Now I will admit that I haven't sat down and read the part on measuring... well all the way through that is. It isn't a chapter to miss. It has good explanations of wraps per inch, how to use samples and where to go from small starts are all good things to know.

All in all it is a very good book. I've learned a lot from it and like to go back and reference it from time to time. I'm by no means a super fancy spinner, but with practice and a good book at my side i just might get to be one.

So that's 3 reviews so far for all of you at home keeping count. Good to my word for 3 months. Not bad. Hope you enjoyed them so far.

Tomorrow there will be....

There will be a blog review of the book Spin Control.

I've been doing a lot more spinning than knitting right now.
I think it has a little to do with the weather and also a little to do with... well it's just a fun thing to do.

I spun up this blue corridale top last year, but its been plyed to make some lovely yarn.

I just spun up this. I can't wait to see what it looks like when I knit it up. I tryed to spin it so the colors will match up, and they might.

So tomorrow there will be a nice review for all you spinning junkies ;)

revelation?

I am a selfish knitter.
And its ok.

My new hat (which needs to be blocked still) is evidence of this.
The Blue Sky Alpaca was just too nice to leave sitting around. So it became a fun new hat.

Now this is not to say that I never knit for other people. Its just not often anymore. I used to gift many things to people. They would say "Oh, thanks this is neat" and that would be that. More often than not the knitted item would never be seen again. I will admit that some of those early knits were quite odd. But they were given with the best of intentions.

These days when I knit for others I knit things that are small, sweet and don't take too long.

Case in point, these baby booties. They were just received by HT's expecting cousin. She quiet likes them and there is Internet gushing going on about them. I'll admit it, I like a little gushing now and then.

So it would seem that I'm going to try and keep some of my knitting to Parents to Be types.

Though this burp cloth is slogging a long.

It doesn't help that at the last knit night I snapped one of the needles when I was sitting down (no I didn't sit on it, just put my hand on it funny)
It is nice and plain with just enough something to keep you going, but I might have to make any more of these with self striping yarn.

And bibs, everyone needs bibs right?
They are simple but can be super pretty if worked right.

This is my first one. It turned out nice and the Soon to Be Parents seemed to like it. Maybe I should just knit a few every time I want to knit but am stuck for an idea. Then I wouldn't always be knitting for myself.

But like I said, there really is nothing wrong with that ;)