Spinning and Dyeing Yarn: The Home Spinners Guide to Creating Traditional and Art Yarns Hardcover – November 1, 2013

This truly is a beginner's guide to making your own yarn. I fell into spinning, which I am still not very good at yet but love,. This book covers all types of fiber and how to identify it and what mixes well with what and the cost of each product out there that you can spin.Next, it covers what skirting is and how to clean your wool after you have skirted. I followed the instructions exactly as it says with the water baths and took the temperature of the water as it said to(although my water from my bathtub just could not reach that 165 degrees it called for, it reached about 130 and I added a large pot of boiling water from the stove top and it was about 145 at the hottest I could get it after the water baths) It still worked GREAT! A quick note on the water baths, I continually kept putting more fresh clean water into my large pot and returning it to the stove each time so that it could heat up almost to a boil again for the next time I needed to add it. This part was extremely helpful to me being new at this because I could not find direct information on the water temperature and amount of time each bath needed to set on the internet. I did find a few Youtube videos on this but they did not even cover basic information and every wool is different, I am finding.Next goes into carding, and separating the wool out and drum carders... It shows step by step how to build your own simple hackle for making you colored roving continuous. It shows how to dye in many ways, from super easy and stuff you have around the house to acid dying, today I only did the solar dying with left over Easter egg dyes... It says for that particular solar dye method to use citric acid to set the dyes...I personally had fantastic results using vinegar(because that is all I had :) I am also a seamstress and work with organic cotton and bamboo fleece and hemp fleece often and I love natural dyes as well. Like try black beans, boil them in some water for a good long bit until they are done and take them out, eat them for dinner, leave your water from them and put in your fabric in it and cook it for an hour, add vinegar, then take it out and let it sit in the yard and hang out for a good while even overnight. It becomes a wild shade of purple! Tumeric from the grocery store is amazing for dying a lovely vibrant yellow in the same method, so I will be doing that with a majority of my wool top and alpaca but egg dyes and food coloring work great! And the book shows several methods of dying, solar, immersion dying, hand painting and more.So my favorite part of this book is the projects to build! It teaches you to build not only a drop spindle, but a kick spindle, a spinning wheel, a hackle, and a drying rack for your finished wet and dyed wool. Good designs too for this stuff, like top quality. I made 2 spinning wheels before I got this book, one was a total flop and the other is the dodec model spindle wheel but amped up and redone so it spins super fast, no flyer though and now I HAVE to make this spinning wheel in here, it looks so modern and will be cheap to make.Also covered in the book is everything that I personally needed to know, how to ply, all these different types of weighted yarns you can make and how to add stuff into your yarn... Like fabric, it teaches how to incorporate fabric into your yarn which happens to be perfect for me because I will serge on my serger for ages and end up with half a grocery bag full of scraps at the end of the day and this way you can use every bit so nothing goes to waste... Of course organic bamboo and cotton serger scraps make great ferret bedding, just saying. One less thing to buy... That about sums it up. The book was EXACTLY what I wanted in every single way and at the end there's even a little section on how to market your yarn if you want to sell it and how to begin selling it if you want to go that route. Mine personally is not even at a point where you would be able to knit with it, let alone sell it but IT'S FUN!!! It's not pretty but its fun!!! Some day I am confident it will be pretty :) Buy the book if you are just starting out and want a book to cover everything. Especially if you are like me and go to a Fiber fair as soon as you find an old vintage Canadian Production wheel and you are like "okay I am going to buy some roving and get outta here...Ooh what's that, oh it is so soft, oooooh it is a quarter of the price for double the amount" ooh its raw wool, raw alpaca fleece. Then spend several hours skirting this wool and washing this wool and then you need to buy these things called Carders because a hair brush really does not work on my homemade blending board(aka a nice piece of wood with a layer of real leather and about 500 staples stapled into it, facing outward-don't waste your time thinking you have a $10 fix people, it doesn't work) So yep, awesome book, truly she tells everything about everything you could want to know as a beginner. I actually really believe even a very experienced spinner could get many miles out of this book; it has not left my hands for more than an hour for the entire week since I got it... I keep finding stuff I did not read, it is all so descriptive and it is a good sized book, over an inch thick and like all of the pages are full color.

First off, this is the prettiest spinning book I've ever owned. (And much bigger than I expected!) The photography is stunning, the clean design is wonderful and the yarns created are colorful and diverse.The book is worth buying just for the instructions on building your own PVC spinning wheel. Spinning is expensive and I know I can't buy another wheel simply to spin art yarns (especially when I usually spin the opposite) but I can absolutely buy some PVC and build one. I like making my own things more than buying them anyway!There are other things to build too, but the rest are relatively easy to figure out on your own, like the niddy noddy and drying rack, but it's still wonderful to have it written down.If you're just beginning to spin or are thinking about it, buy this book first.

It has tons of pictures and examples, and step by step. Instructions for a lot of things from getting your own materials to dying and spinning and selling the final products. It includes washing and carding and how to build your own Tools. I was looking more for a book meant for beginning spinners and it only has one short page on drop spinning and only 3 pictures but no other information on how to get a nice spin going, just the thick and thin or really twisty coiled stuff. Other than that great resource for building and any other beginner info.

I'm very new to spinning ... just started taking some lessons, reading and "playing"... working with alpaca, I felt the need to learn how to make their fiber into something wonderful.... And this book is amazing! I wasn't sure what to expect from a book about yarn and wheels - - but WOW! it's a BEAUTY of a book too and has a wealth of info for any spinner.... More so, I adore the "art" of this whole process and the author has put together an incredible amount of detail in explaining just how to make fibers come to life. I know this book will be an amazing guide as I continue to learn and observe and I'm sure it will be something I share with other fiber artists and spinners for years to come!

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in spinning, dyeing, or fiber in general. There is information on different types of fiber and how to clean and prepare it, then dye and spin it. The instructions for building your own equipment (such as a drying rack, kick spindle and even a spinning wheel) are wonderful if you don't have a lot of money to spend. There are several dyeing techniques, many spinning and plying techniques, and even trouble shooting tips as you go. Ashley also provides some tips on building your own brand and selling on line. The pictures in this book are beautiful! This book is worth far more than it sells for, and I am so glad I bought it! If you are thinking about buying it, stop thinking and just get it.

This is the ideal spinning book if you're a novice to both the crafts of spinning and dyeing--and it's a great addition to your resource library, even if you have a wealth of experience! Straightforward explanations of techniques and tools make achieving consistent results much easier than that possible through experimentation alone, and handy troubleshooting advice throughout helps you stay motivated to see your dyeing and spinning efforts through to the final result. Great pictures, a wonderful resource list, and some delightful wit make this text a favourite of mine for many reasons.

This book is both beautiful and helpful. The pictures are wonderful, so large, with that full bleed off the page, the book easily qualifies for the coffee table art book status. Then there is Ashley's wonderful way of teaching, clearly explaining what her best practices are for achieving the yarn. I may have to order another so I can remove all of the pages in the second one and put them in a binder so that I can take them out individually and lay them next to my wheel for clarification as I spin. One for my studio and one for the coffee table! Such a good idea, I think I'll order the 2nd one now! Enjoy.

Beautiful book by Ashley Martineau, check her You Tube channel to see if you like her style, practical and inspiring

Very useful book

Great book!! Well worth it!!

Absolutely perfect!!...a very clear and informative book. I am super pleased

Thank you so much!