Spin Control: Techniques for Spinning the Yarns You Want

by Amy King, Anne Merrow (editor), Joe Coca (photographer)

From soft, bulky single yarns to serviceable three-ply for heavy use, this guide to handspun yarns combines the positive traits of commercial yarns with personal touches. Focusing at first on the spinning wheel, emphasis is placed on the importance of adjusting and customizing the wheel for best results. Instructions on core spinning and less traditional techniques lead off the beaten path to novelty yarns. Each type of yarn is explored in detail with instructions on how to make them.

292 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 25, 2013

About the author

Amy King is the recipient of the 2015 Women’s National Book Association (WNBA) Award. Her latest collection, The Missing Museum, is a 2015 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prize winner. She’s co-editor of the anthology Big Energy Poets: Ecopoetry Thinks Climate Change and the anthology series, Bettering American Poetry. King is a professor of creative writing at SUNY Nassau Community College.

King has also taught poetry workshops at such places as the San Francisco State University Poetry Center and the Summer Writing Program @ Naropa University.

Her poems have been nominated for numerous Pushcart Prizes, she was a Lambda Literary finalist, and she was the recipient of a MacArthur Scholarship for Poetry. Amy founded and curated, from 2006, the Brooklyn-based reading series, The Stain of Poetry, until 2010. Readings, reviews and more @ www.AmyKing.org .

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't realize until I bought this book that it's really meant as an intro to using a spinning wheel. There's a lot of good information even for those who, like me, are using a drop spindle, but I skimmed the entire middle section about choosing/using a spinning wheel (as it was not relevant to me) and a lot of the tips on how to make novelty yarns (as I already know I have no interest in making them).