Spinning Designer Yarns

by Diane Varney

"This inspiring illustrated guide teaches experienced spinners to make beautiful designer yarns and encourages them to be more creative and have more fun with spinning. Handspun yarns can be white, lumpy, gray, and precise—or they can be as colorful and deliciously textured as the spinner's imagination. Presented are instructions on applying dye to fibers in new, exciting ways; predicting how novelty yarns will look in finished fabrics; blending fibers for color and texture effects; spinning singles and plied yarns; and using these fantastic new yarns in weaving, knitting, and crocheting. Spinners will also add corespun, bouclé, snarl, knotted, and tufted yarns to their spinning repertoire."

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, Crafts, Knitting

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Elise Cohen]

"I appreciate this books technical details and brevity. I would have preferred a little more detail and a little more creativity; much of what Varney considers designer yarns seem fairly every-day to me (simply using silk and plying it with merino is not innovative in my mind, nor is spinning slub yarns). The suggestions on creating core yarns, and using commercial yarns as plies are welcome, as is the information on making boucles and on including bits of extra material in plied yarn. I appreciate Varney's recommendations to know the technical aspects of your spinning (angle of twist, tpi, wpi, and so on), and her suggestions on experimentation. The book has a fairly extensive section (relative to the total size of the volume) on dyeing for preferred effect."