Tabla de contenidos para Winter 2024 en Spin-Off

The natural fibers we work with—cotton, wool, flax, hemp, and silk, for example—have traveled along with us throughout human history and carry complex stories. Each has, at times, been raised sustainably and processed by makers respected in their communities. Each also has ties to periods of breathtaking extraction and harm. However, we can also find people today using these plants and animals as a tool to improve the world around them. In this Deep Roots issue, many of the authors are intensely dedicated to not only helping others understand histories, cultures, and landscapes, but also to helping people like you and me connect with them through our spinning fingers. We can participate in making these hopeful visions for the future a reality. The world is teaming with natural fibers; this…

A Fiber Life hosted by Lisa Mitchell Lisa Mitchell raises guanacos on Whidbey Island, Washington. In her podcast, she explores connections between handcrafting and raising fiber animals and how it all ties into our lives. Through these stories, Lisa encourages listeners to examine their own relationships with fiber and fiber animals.  afiberlife.com/podcast The Sheepspot hosted by Sasha Torres The Sheepspot invites handspinners to learn about making yarns they love, with quick and doable spinning lessons. With lots of helpful resources, this is one podcast that’s great for listeners learning to spin for the first time, those learning art-yarn techniques, and anyone exploring wools from different breeds of sheep.  sheepspot.com/podcast The Long Thread hosted by Anne Merrow The Long Thread podcast features textile-centric conversations with fiber artists, authors, spinners, weavers, and…

Navajo folklore says that t’aa dibé (the first sheep) were a gift from the Holy People. But because of our pride, those first sheep were taken away and promised to be returned when our humility was regained. History says that the Spanish Churra sheep were driven up from Mexico in the mid-1500s. This expansion led to the acquisition of the sheep by my ancestors, a reacquaintance with an animal that they’ve remembered in their creation stories, sacred chants, and prayers. Since then, there has been a timeline of fruitful years as well as involuntary reductions of what was once recorded as the “old-type” Navajo sheep. Today’s Navajo-Churro sheep are the result of historical selective breeding by both Indigenous and Hispanic shepherds. The sheep are smaller than your average commercial and finewool…

Hundreds of small islands are scattered across the vast Western Pacific Ocean and home to some of the most remote students on the planet. Diverse in culture and language, these far-flung picturesque islands of the Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Republic of Palau form the geopolitical crossroads of the Pacific. The islands’ dramatic role in centuries of global politics obscures persistent challenges of isolation, dispersion, and limited resources. WeavingConnections is a project of Habele, a non-profit established by former Peace Corps Volunteers who served in Micronesia focused on educational programs for Micronesian children. Through WeavingConnections, volunteers aim to document the materials and context of the distinctive backstrap-loom weaving practiced in the western Caroline islands and by migrants from these Micronesian islands. For more information about…

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If small-batch dyeing exercises have left you rich in miniskeins of many colors, then this stitch pattern can be your payoff. It’s a bit sneaky. Even a seasoned knitter might be fooled into thinking it is worked with a stranded knitting technique, but it derives its punch from easy slip stitches alternating with plain rows. Why “Small Change”? First, a small change to a rather unexciting knitting pattern—as happened when I first explored this motif and shifted from four rows of each color to two—is a fascinating way to explore color design. Second, this scarf pattern uses up minimal amounts of individual colors of yarn—small change in terms of yarn capital. Color Placement and a Note about That Screaming Color As mentioned in my article “Slipped-Color Exploration” (Spin Off Spring…

Teasels through Time I REALLY ENJOYED THE ARTICLE on teasels in the Fall 2023 issue of SpinOff [“Testing Teasel: A Stone Age Approach to Flax Processing” by Steph Horak]. When I was a kid, we had wild teasels growing along the side of our driveway. We also lived near Skaneateles/Marcellus, New York, which was the teasel capital of the world during the time when the domestic teasels were used extensively in the production of wool fabrics. As an adult, I became interested in those fuller teasels due to my interest in spinning and weaving. I managed to grow some fuller teasels, although too many times the seeds that I bought as fuller turned out to be the wild ones, wasting two years each time only to discover that! I also…

As COVID-19 swept the globe in 2020, a group of influential fiber artists reached out to me via Instagram. Our conversation turned to ways we could help Diné shepherds and their sheep. The Navajo Nation was being ravaged with cases of COVID-19, and at one point, the Navajo Nation led in cases per capita in the United States. Many Diné lost their lives, and many Diné flocks lost their shepherds. For nearly a century, Navajo-Churro wool—once the preferred wool used exclusively in the most well-made Diné blankets and rugs—has been deemed inferior, and shepherds were told that it has no place in the national or global market. In 2019, a handful of Diné shepherds felt lucky to be paid 1 to 5 cents per pound for their Navajo-Churro wool; others…

I first learned to spin wool on my Ashford Traditional wheels. As I progressed along my spinning journey, I moved from wool to alpaca, llama, and mohair—all protein fibers from animals. Based on discussions with my spinning friends and on the dearth of plant fibers among the colorful offerings where I buy my spinning supplies, I felt that plant fibers might prove a challenge. What I have found working with plant fibers such as flax and cotton is that they are not more difficult to spin than wool if we understand how they grow, are processed into spinnable fiber, and have been traditionally spun throughout human history. There are many differences between plant-based fibers and our animal-based familiars because plant fibers are largely composed of cellulose and animal fibers of…

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee once wrote, “Some knitters say that they buy yarn with no project in mind and wait patiently for the yarn to ‘speak’ to them. This reminds me of Michelangelo, who believed that every block of stone he carved had the statue waiting inside and that all he did was reveal it. I think I’ve had yarn speak to me during the knitting process.... ”1 Yarn has certainly spoken to me during both the knitting and spinning of the Atlantic Shawl. With this project, the blended flax and wool yarns I created had a lot to say. When my friend and spinning partner Annamarie Hatcher suggested we explore plant fibers, I was intrigued. I would not call my spinning experience with plant fibers such as flax extensive, but my…

The name Shaniko comes from Oregon’s most famous ghost town, located in north-central Oregon, just 12 miles from our ranch headquarters. Located a long way from markets, this vast plateau country was home to hundreds of thousands of sheep in the late 1800s and early 1900s who produced millions of pounds of fine wool each year. By 1900, the Columbia Southern Railroad built south from the Columbia River into the interior, getting closer to the ranches where food and fiber were produced. It was a welcome sight for the ranchers who struggled to deliver their harvests to market. Where the railroad was stopped by a tremendous canyon, the town of Shaniko was born in 1901. It took about 15 years for the railroad to be built past the big canyon,…

Most patterns ask for a specific yarn to create a specific fabric, and we as spinners can make a yarn that meets those requirements, depending on our skills and habits. However, this project offers you a framework for making a useful bag with the yarn you find most suitable. The first step is to become familiar with your fiber and then use spinning techniques to refine your yarn for this specific use. I hope using this kind of recipe helps you feel empowered as a maker. A cushiony bag for a laptop, tablet, phone, or camera keeps the device safe. Whether you are protecting sensitive electronics or other precious items, you need a bag with the right balance of firmness, elasticity, and thickness to cushion contents and sustain the shape…

In my early twenties, I served as a Peace Corps volunteer on Yap Island in the Federated States of Micronesia, a remote nation in the western Pacific composed of 65 inhabited islands and more than a dozen distinct languages and cultures. Women from the Outer Islands of Yap and Chuuk weave and wear cloth skirts called lavalava, which are also used as burial shrouds, for trade, as peace offerings during conflict, and more. Though the materials and colors have changed significantly over the past several decades, lavalava weaving has largely survived colonization and globalization due to the complex role it serves in Yapese Outer Island and mainland cultures. For the two years I lived in Yap, I was taught to weave by a family of women from Lamotrek, one of…

How did you get into your craft? I was born in Poland into a family whose inseparable part of life was a workshop in which my dad made spinning wheels. I spent a lot of time with him there, beginning at age five. Since there were not many attractions for children where I grew up, many toys were made by my grand-father and dad. In a natural way, I also started to invent and make various “choo-choo cars,” cars, planes, houses, and other fun things. Over time, they became more and more complicated, equipped with moving parts. At the same time, my interest in drawing and sculpture grew. At school, I loved math, especially geometry. How did you shift from hobby to business? I gradually moved from a hobby—which never…

Low-whorl and mid-whorl drop spindles often have a simple, straight shaft without a hook to secure the yarn. Traditionally, these suspended spindles might have a notch cut near the top of the shaft; they might have a tapered, pointy tip; they might have a rough shaft that doesn’t change diameter; or they might have some combination of these elements. In the archaeological record, spindle whorls often outlive their shafts, so we don’t always know how different spinning cultures solved this perennial spindle issue. We do know that many spinners around the world have long used a half hitch to secure yarn to the suspended spindle. This quick backwardloop technique is easy to memorize and adaptable to your hands and spindles. If your spindle starts to get too heavy for the…