Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Calling all Spinners

OK kids - I need some help. I am in search of the "Spinning Bible" but as of yet I don't know which book this is. I need someone to let me know the title of the "Spinning Bible" as I know there must be one out there. I'm looking for something that covers fiber preparation and wheel spinning in an easy to understand and detailed manner. FOR BEGINNERS!

We found a woman who is selling her Ashford wheel that she has had for 6 months and never even touched! I guess she thought it was something she wanted to learn but just never got around to it. She is selling it for $275 so we are pretty excited about that. The only problem? She is in another state so I guess we will need to get her to ship it to us.

I looked at Knitch for a book - no luck. I looked on Amazon for a book and just didn't really see anything that looked like it was worth the shipping price. SOOOOOOO - help me out!! Much appreciated!!!

7 comments:

Hockey Mom said...

Hey there! Just got back from CA and saw the post here. There are several books on spinning that are good. There's Alden Amos' "Book on Spinning," Lee Raven "Hands on Spinning" and several others. Hopefully we can get together soon so we can get Warlock going! Y'all got a drop spindle? Knitch sells them and lots of roving.

jenifleur said...

Everyone is going to tell you Alden Amos. It probably is the real bible of spinning, but it wasn't good for me as a beginner and they say you either love him or hate him. Bear in mind it reads like it was written in stone-it's not. He's just very opinionated. I think Anne Field's books Ashford Book of Spinning and Spinning Wool Beyond the Basics [especially the 2nd one, Beyond the Basics] were far less intimidating. YMMV. I'd probably also second Hands on Spinning, though I rarely use it, I've heard a lot of people like it. There's a new Teach Yourself Visually book coming out which got terrible reviews in Spin Off, but I haven't seen it in person.

I think you can get a lot of great information by subscribing to Spin Off. No, it's not going to teach you how to start spinning, but it will help. They do have some good tutorials on their site, too:

http://www.interweave.com/spin/Getting_Started.asp

funfairiegirl said...

I have both Hands on Spinning and Book on Spinning suggested by Hockey mom. I like both. Also, there is a smaller version of the Hand on Spinning called Spin it which is geared toward drop spindles - it is pared down of all the other spinning stuff in Hands on.

Also - there are some GREAT documents on Spin Offs website on beginning spinning.

funfairiegirl said...

I have both Hands on Spinning and Book on Spinning suggested by Hockey mom. I like both. Also, there is a smaller version of the Hand on Spinning called Spin it which is geared toward drop spindles - it is pared down of all the other spinning stuff in Hands on.

Also - there are some GREAT documents on Spin Offs website on beginning spinning.

Katey said...

I agree with Jenifleur, everyone will say Alden Amos, and I have to say that I bought that one as well as Spin to Knit.

Between the two and a brief lesson with hockey mom, I was good to go, I particularly liked spin to knit.

theyarnwhisperer said...

Ok, Brit, I need to somehow hook up with hockeymom to pick her brain. I clicked on her name, but couldn't get to her blog. I've got a drop spindle. I've got roving. I've got the desire to learn. I will even pay the woman to teach me. (I have left my name, number, email, mother's maiden name, LMP, and an assundry of other information with knitch for their spinning teacher to contact me and have not yet heard from said teacher.) Can you shoot her an email and give her my email and tell her I would be ever so grateful if she could help a sister out!

Knit Witch said...

You guys all ROCK!! Thanks for all the great information!