Giveaway for Rookie’s Field Guide to Supported Spinning readers!

Pssst…

There’s a giveaway (bribery/incentive) deal going on right now for readers of the Rookie’s Field Guide to Supported Spinning …

Details in our Ravelry forum!

If I tried to put all this in my daytimer…

… I’d need an extra page.

So here's what I've done so far:

I got the motorhome cleaned, scrubbed, and smudged with incense. Put bedding on the beds. Loaded some canned goods into the cupboard. Stove, water, and water heater tested. (Need to test the furnace tomorrow!) Tried to start it, no go, probably needs a boost – The Reluctant Farmer is taking care of that. Took out some of the shop stock so that at least that much will be ready when I get home from Ontario. (More on that in a bit.)

I've also been doing a bunch of laundry in our new washing machine - the old one died a long-anticipated death on Thursday morning, and we were able to pick up a new one (well, new to us – the people had listed it on Kijiji just that day, and their place was not far off my route home from counselling, so it worked out perfectly). The new machine is WONDERFUL – it’s really big, and very quiet, and doesn’t dance across the floor or complain about being unable to drain. When I arrived to pick it up, the people were there talking with a friend who’d obviously come by on his way home from work. I recognized the company name on his truck, as it’s the same place my friend with the horses works. I asked if they might know one another and sure enough, they do. “Oh yeah,” the guy said, “he was talking to me about this McGavin’s Bread wagon he’s gonna restore …” I laughed. “He was at my house yesterday with one of the spokes for that wagon, I’m taking it with me when I go to Ontario so my wheelwright friend can make copies!" Apparently that detail had been mentioned in the conversation … it was quite a coincidence! I felt all, I dunno, famous or something.

So, laundry – which dries nice and quick outside in this sunny and somewhat breezy weather, and motorhome prep, and also getting ready for the show tomorrow. It’s Artist’s Day at the Pegg Garden, and I’ll be there selling my woven items, one hand knit scarf (in really wild muppet yarn), and my books … and weaving, and spinning, and generally just being a fibre artist where everyone can watch. I also have some fabric with me so I can do the tests of ecoprinting with the plants that grow in the garden in advance of our workshop coming later this summer (the workshop is the last weekend in August, also at the Garden). I’ll need to be there a bit early so I can wander off and get plant samples rolled up into fibery cocoons for steaming and colour setting. They have to sit for a few weeks, so I need to get them wrapped and steamed before I leave so they can sit and do their marinating thing while I’m off gallivanting around.

I did get the wheel, spindles, and all my stuff out into the van tonight – and I took my gray coat, to show as a sample of what can be done for custom work (it’s also a different shape, so I want to have both the swing coat and the blanket coat there to display) … and I grabbed some yarn so I can warp up the little loom once I’m there. I’d sort of thought I might do that ahead of time, but really, I’m out of energy and I’ll have plenty of time tomorrow as the show goes from 11-4, and warping is just another part of the whole adventure so people might as well see that too.

Oh, and yesterday I did most of my packing for my trip to Ontario – I am gone all day tomorrow, and I have to be at the airport for 6:30 Monday morning (which I clearly did not process when I chose that flight time … an 8:30 am departure seems quite reasonable, until you factor in the need to be at the airport two hours early and the fact that it takes over an hour and a half to get to the airport from home). We will be adding in time to stop for coffee on the way, trust me. I’m heading to see my parents, and then my sister and brother in law will join up with us for a day, and Friday I’ll be heading to Burlington for the Ontario Handspinning Seminar where I will be helping out my friend Wheelwright with his antique spinning wheel sales and assisting during the keynote speech he’s giving. Oh, and doing the last minute assembly of the giveaway items that he was asked to make for the Saturday night banquet! (I know what they are, but I think they are a surprise so I won’t say.) It sounds like it’s gonna be a blast.

Then once the conference is over on Sunday afternoon, I’ll hop on the train and go to Oshawa to visit some of my Chosen Family, and Monday afternoon I fly back home.

Then I do a bunch of laundry, go for groceries, load up the motorhome and head to Olds for Fibre Week!

I am gonna need all of July to recover from this, but it’s gonna be an awesome ride.

Stay tuned for more of the adventure!

A podcast interview about the Rookie’s Field Guide

A podcaster (who happens to also be a local knitter and spinner that I know in Real Life) invited me to be interviewed on her awesome podcast, By the Fibreside.

You can listen to a wonderfully crafted introduction, learn about Master Spinner techniques, hear about knitting projects underway and hear us chat about the new book and supported spinning and other fibery goodness right here.

And the proof copy is on the way!

The covers for the Rookie’s Field Guide to Supported Spinning are finally done (after going back and forth with the print crew several times, as I could not figure out what was wrong … I’d started on a low resolution template, that’s what was wrong!) and the proof copy is headed to the print shop!

I’m so excited.

The Field Guide to Supported Spinning: paperback edition

Final arrangements are underway for the paperback version of the Rookie’s Field Guide to Supported Spinning … and we are ready to take preorders!

Books should be ready for mailing sometime in April, possibly sooner, depending mostly on how many preorders we get. So, if you want to help things along, well, follow the link and buy a copy for yourself … and one for a friend … and one for your local library … and one for the spinning guild …

Here’s where you can order however many you need for your little corner of the fibre world.

The Rookie’s Field Guide to Supported Spinning

Those of you who’ve been around the blog for a while know that I discovered supported spinning last year, and have been extremely pleased to find that I can make lovely yarn while sitting comfortably in my recliner or propped on pillows in my bed. When the fatigue overwhelms me and my body won’t stay upright and my brain’s too muddied to concentrate on knitting, it’s wonderful to be able to sit in my big comfy chair with a dish on my lap and a spindle in my hand and make pretty string.

I have made a lot of pretty string this way – most of what I spun for the Tour de Fleece last year was done on spindles. I have some lovely tools – including my much loved Bristlecone spindles and a hand carved phang made for me by a friend. I also have hand made spindles, like these:

Which, as you can see, also make pretty string.

I love spinning supported. It’s so restful, so easy on the body. Right now, as I battle the flu, there’s no way I could work on a wheel or even hold up a drop spindle, but I can spin in bed, propped up on pillows with a spindle, some lovely fibre, and a dish nestled into the covers piled on my lap.

I’ve met people who had to give up spinning for one reason or another – knees that won’t tolerate treadling any more, or injured shoulders that prevent the kind of arm movements needed for suspending a drop spindle. For some of these spinners, supported spindles might be workable – a way to still make yarn, even with physical limitations.

It’s not just that it’s easy on the body … I can take my spindles with me in the car or when I have to sit somewhere and wait, much the same way I take my knitting. Most of the time, it’s knitting that travels with me, but sometimes I just don’t feel like counting or focusing on a pattern and then I pick up a spindle and settle into the lovely rhythm of drafting and winding on, drafting and winding on. Because the spindle sits in your lap or beside you on the chair, you don’t need a lot of room – I can spin with someone sitting right beside me and not whack them with my arm or get in their space.

Besides, there’s something inherently amazing about taking a weighted wooden stick, a dish, and a handful of fibre and ending up with yarn. It’s some alchemical trick or other, and it’s just … cool.

Now, you’d think that an art form as ancient as spinning supported (I do have a spindle made from a Roman-era lead spindle whorl, which, you have to admit, is pretty old) would be well documented in the  literature.

It isn’t.

I’ve checked out every book the library has on spinning, and only a couple of them even mentioned supported spindles. Drop spindles, yes. Wheels, definitely. Supported spindles? Not so much.

There are actually a few books out there that are dedicated specifically to spinning supported, excellent resources written by experts who have done a lot of research. Impressive stuff, really, all you could ever want to know, from the history of the spindles themselves to the ways different fibres behave when spun this way to reviews of the types of spindles currently available.

When I was just starting out, though, I was hoping for a quick introduction, a book that covered the basics and gave me just enough to get started. A book that didn’t cost too much, either, since I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to continue with this style of spinning. I couldn’t find a book like that.

So, I wrote it.

The Rookie’s Field Guide to Supported Spinning is for anyone who’s curious about spinning yarn with supported spindles but doesn't quite know where to begin.

Not an exhaustive history of spinning (supported or otherwise), nor a description of The One Right Way to Spin Supported nor a definition of The Best Kind of Spindle ... the Field Guide includes instructions for making your own supported spindles from inexpensive and easily obtained materials, and provides guidelines for scavenging your cupboards or local thrift store for spinning bowls. To make sure you are off on the right foot, the Field Guide also contains instructions on Spindle Quality Assurance: how to tell if the spindle you've made (or acquired) will be good enough to learn on. (I did have a career in QA in my Other Life.)

Then, since the whole point of this adventure is to produce yarn, the book includes suggestions for selecting and preparing fibre, several methods for spinning one handed (one hand is busy turning the spindle, so you need to figure out how to spin with only one hand on the fibre, a strategy quite different from most other styles of spinning), clues to help you wind neatly onto the spindle shaft (so you don’t make a tangled mess), and some techniques for plying and dealing with your finished yarn. Like all of the fibre arts, the real learning happens when you hold the tools and fibre in your hands and practice the skills in real life. The Field Guide will suggest possible routes you might take on your journey, but each spinner’s path will be unique.

It is, after all, a Guide, not a Rulebook. :)

So, the book is currently available in eBook format (ePub, Kindle, Sony, PDF), and I am in the process of arranging a print run as well – I will probably be setting up to take preorders for printed copies in the next couple of weeks. I’d love to gauge the interest in printed copies … if you think you might like one, would you be so kind as to leave a comment here  (or send me an email or a message through Ravelry) so that I can get an idea how many I might want to order?

 

And see? I promised my next book would be more cheerful . ;)