Customer Reviews

Spin Dye Stitch: How to Create and Use Your Own Yarns

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4 star:		(1)
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I cannot say enough good things about this book.

What I love about this book:

- Step-by-step instructions for spinning on a spindle and spinning on a wheel.
- Instructions for plying yarn.
- Instructions for setting and storing handspun yarn.
- Troubleshooting for handspun yarn.
- Step-by-step instructions for single-color dying on the stove, in a crockpot, and in a microwave.
- Step-by-step instructions for multiple-color dying on the stove, in a crockpot, and in a microwave.
- Instructions for making handpainted yarns.
- Clear photographs that illustrate every step of every technique.

What I don't love: the knitting projects are kind of lame, but they're a great jumping off point for the type of projects a newbie spinner should consider for handspun yarn. Quite frankly, I'd search Ravelry for "bulky yarn" for more inspired knitting projects.

What other people might not love: this isn't for an intermediate/advanced spinner, dyer, or knitter unless you want to teach a class and want to use it either as a textbook or how to break down steps for beginners.

I'm an experienced knitter, but never understood why anyone would want to spin their own yarn. Well, after reading this book, watching a video (Start Spinning: The Video Presented By Maggie Casey with Eunny Jang) and a little practice, I spun six yards on a drop spindle. It's a nice, balanced, lumpy, two-ply yarn. Now I understand why a knitter would want to spin.

Here's what I like about this book:
* Spin Dye Stitch reinforces what I learned on the video. It's like the smartest student in class took notes from a lecture and captured all of the important parts. So this book is a great reference.
* Jennifer Claydon explains how to fix mistakes. Just like any beginner, bad things happened when I tried spinning. But with the clear pictures and text, I was able to fix my mistakes (mostly broken fiber and kinks during plying).
* There are projects that use very few yards of handspun yarn, sometimes combined with commercial yarns. There are knitting projects, which appeal to me, but also simple weaving projects and other craft projects.
* There is a beautiful gallery of handspun yarns which shows the fiber that the yarn was spun from as well as the finished yarn. The author even includes pictures of her first yarns.
* The pictures are so good that they gave me a sense of the movement for each step. Each step is explained in words and pictures.

this book is fabulas for the beginer spinner or some one just getting to indie dyeing ~ .
I am advaced spinner dyer and i find the info a refresher course !

This paperback book is seems to have everything taken in consideration as far as a book goes. The paper is heavy wait and has a parchment pattern on each page. The layout is easy to read and helpful hints appear just as you need them.

The title of the book "How to Create and Use Your Own Yarns" by Jennifer Claydon pretty much describes the book. It has detailed instructions on using a drop spindle, a spinning wheel (you may see your favorite wheel), dying and hand panting.

On the hand spindle the book slows down and actually shows how to correct for problems. The only thing that can be better would be a film, and even then it would have to be detailed. There are lots of color pictures and diagrams.

Speaking of diagrams I really like to keep page 18 open when conversing. I contain detailed names of all the parts of spinning wheels. You may be surprised at just how many there are.

I will not go into detail but pretty much all the knowledge you need for making your own yarn is in this book.

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While this book isn't intended to be the ultimate manual, this book is chock full of information packed into a wonderful introduction to spinning, dyeing and working with self-created, handspun yarns. There are beautiful photos throughout. It begins by covering various types of fibers and their qualities and goes into the anatomy of a drop spindle and a spinning wheel. Along with the step-by-step instruction, it has plenty of tips to help the beginner get started with spinning and plying yarns successfully on a bottom whorl drop spindle or wheel and how to finish the yarns properly. The author even addresses some of the more common pitfalls in the process and how to avoid or correct them. In the color section, the author shows multiple ways to dye fiber and yarn in your kitchen that are extremely easy to do with very little space using a microwave, stove top, hot plate or crock pot. The projects section shows a few simple ways to use the yarn that is created including knitting, weaving, embroidery and a few craft/felting projects. Lastly, there is a section full of wonderful skeins displaying how beautiful handspun yarn can be as a work of art all its own. Each yarn has a description of how it was made to give the beginner something to shoot for in the future. For a simple introductory book, I got a wealth of information. Extremely happy with this purchase!