The Spinner I Want to Be

The Spinner I Want to Be

Sarah Anderson shares a wealth of spinning knowledge in her new video Building Blocks of Spinning.

Sarah Anderson is the spinner and fiber artist I want to be when I grow up.  She has spun all her life, and she has the most relaxed and perfect control on any style of spinning—worsted, woolen, and everything in between. Her knowledge of yarn structures is encyclopedic, her color sense is superb, and her creativity is unparalleled. She is also a born teacher and a delightful person with a great sense of humor…do you see why I want to grow up to be Sarah?

My Pacific Northwest fiber friends and I first met Sarah at Northwest Regional Spinners and other local fiber festivals. She had a dye business called Great Balls of Fiber, and she always shared a booth space with her friend Bonnie Rose, the tea lady. When we would arrive at the marketplace, our intrepid band of fiber shoppers would split up to reconnoiter, and when we regrouped, the first report was always where to find Sarah and the amazing new colorways and clever spinning tools she'd invented since we saw her last. We thought Sarah was such a lovely person, and we were pleased and proud to see our Northwest friend gracing the pages of Spin-Off many times over the years, sharing spinning techniques, her now-famous "wrap and roll," and gorgeous knitting projects she designed.

	Sarah shows how the using a different binder totally changes the look of a bouclé yarn.

This year two happy events converged, Sarah's Spinner's Book of Yarn Design was published, to great acclaim, and our Interweave video studio got a new camera setup that enables us to show spinning as never before. It was time to share Sarah's knowledge with the whole spinning world! Whether you've been spinning four months or forty years, <a href="http://shop.spinningdaily.com/building-blocks-of-spinning" target="blank">Building Blocks of Spinning_ will teach you techniques and tips you never knew and color and texture ideas you'll want to try the next time you sit down at your wheel. In this video, you can see the movement of every fiber as it transforms into yarn. (Seriously. It is so cool it gave me goose bumps as I watched.) You'll understand twist and yarn structure in a whole new way, and you'll expand your spinning repertoire with variations on spiral, cable, crepe, bouclé, and other structures, plus loads of great tips for carding, plying, spinning short fibers, and more.

Truth be told, if I haven't grown up by now, it's not likely to happen. But after 20+ years, I am reaching a whole new level as a spinner, thanks to Sarah Anderson. I hope you find her new video as exciting as I do.