Spin Off

A closeup image of twisted iris cordage on a blue background

Something from Nothing: Making Cordage from the Garden

Learn how to twist cordage, plus find two projects for your garden cordage!

Devin Helmen

Godey’s-Inspired Sontag

A pattern originally published in Godey’s Lady’s Book in January 1860 inspired this cozy shawl from the Summer 2020 issue of Spin Off.

Denise Williams

For the Record: How to Maintain Good Spinning Notes

If Vanessa could go back and give herself one piece of spinning advice, it would be this: Keeping good records is not a waste of time because you won’t remember everything about every skein of yarn that you’ve spun.

Vanessa Bjerreskov

Les Tricoteuses: A Bastille Day Yarn

On July 14, France celebrates Bastille Day (or as they call it “Quatorze Juillet”), the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789 that marked a turning point in the French Revolution—well, the first of their revolutions, anyway.

Anne Merrow

Re-Creating 18th-Century Weaving: Fulling Cloth and Shearing Swatches

Spin Off Winter 2019 included an article chronicling Sarah Wroot’s adventures in weaving handspun singles, fulling cloth with a wooden mallet, and more as she re-created an eighteenth-century textile.

Sarah Wroot

Navigating the Many Types of Wool Sold by R.H. Lindsay

Rooted in industrial-scale wool supply, descriptions of the types of wool R.H. Lindsay carries include terms that handspinners don’t find anywhere else.

Julia Farwell-Clay

Her Handspun Habit: What to Knit With Frankenskein Handspun Yarn

This week I unearthed a favorite skein of handspun yarn from long ago: 750 yards of a colorful, laceweight Frankenskein.

Deborah Held

Le Tour de Fleece 2017 Day 15: Just Keep Treadling

Spinners, there is only one more week until Le Tour de Fleece 2017 is in the books.

Deborah Held

Roving Reporter: A Traveler’s Spinning Inspiration: My Handspun Yarn Journal

How can a mesa be transformed into a hank of handspun? My favorite tool is my spinner’s notebook, a sort of handspun yarn journal.

2016’s Top 5 Tips for Spinning Yarn

Spin Off 2016 issues may be a distant memory—but one worthy of revisiting to learn about fibers, preparation, techniques for spinning yarn, and more. Here are 5 of my favorite pieces of advice from the experts.