Table of contents for Summer 2024 in Spin-Off

What fiber crafts did you learn first? For me, it was weaving and sewing. In my early 20s, I learned to spin and knit, both of which brought a new vitality to all of my making. Looking back over more than two decades as a spinner knitter, it makes sense to me now that learning to knit three-dimensional shapes to fit my three-dimensional body helped me understand weaving and sewing with two-dimensional cloth in a new way. For me, it’s all connected—how about you? For this cheerful Summer issue of Spin Off, we chose “Handspun Handknits” to explore knitting and beyond. Swedish Spinner Josefin Waltin had woven with her handspun linen in the past, but she discovered a twist conundrum once it was on her knitting needles. Check out her…

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Melanie Allaire Owner, A Lair Artifacts How did you get into your craft? From the early days of getting my hands messy with all sorts of crafts to this very moment, I’ve always been driven by curiosity, eager to experiment and dive into anything remotely creative. What began as a childhood curiosity grew into a love for design, textiles, and fashion that ultimately blossomed into a fulfilling career. I found myself not just creating beautiful pieces but also delving into the scientific aspects of fiber arts. The interplay between the technical and artistic aspects became my playground, where I could merge my love for science with the creativity of design. A Lair Artifacts was born from a simple desire: sharing my love and curiosity for the incredible variety of sheep…

Many of you may have heard of the Berta’s Flax project, started by Christiane Seufferlein in Austria. A neighbor gifted her a dowry chest filled with flax grown and prepared in the 1940s. Berta was the name of the woman who had once owned the chest. Christiane posted on social media, asking fellow spinners if they would like to have some of Berta’s flax. In early 2021, Christiane started shipping Berta’s flax stricks to spinners, and she was then contacted by other families who had flax dowries. A long line of Austrian women’s flax dowries have now been passed through Christiane to enthusiastic spinners around the world wanting to honor the memory of Berta and her flax-dowry sisters. I was one of those spinners. In one of the numerous articles…

As a knitter, I have always enjoyed squishy, unfussy garter stitch. But as a handspinner, I absolutely adore garter stitch. It is smooth and meditative to work and produces a soft, reversible fabric that doesn’t curl; and its simplicity will allow the colors and textures of your precious handspun to take the spotlight. As a designer and math lover, though, it’s the squareness of garter stitch that appeals to me. Each two-row ridge of garter stitch is equal to one stitch in width, leading to all sorts of right-angled and mitered possibilities that don’t require a lot of counting once you get some stitch markers in place. This shawl is a result of playing with those possibilities and the goal of fitting a flat piece of knitting around a three-dimensional…

There are typically two classes of spinners: those who spin yarn for a specific end project and those who spin to spin and figure out what to do with the yarn later. Like the shades of brownish gray in my ombré, I wandered into an in-between category with this project. I had an end project in mind, but my finished piece may have become something else. Creating the gently shifting shades of my ombré skein is the heart of this piece. I knitted this scarf after seeing how well this simple lace pattern complemented my handspun ombré yarn. It’s geometric with squares split into triangles by a row of eyelets. Repeated, it creates a light pleating effect that is as attractive on the wrong side as it is on the right…

In the Classroom As a handwork teacher for children in a Waldorf setting, I wanted to make a useful item from scratch that I could wear in the classroom—something that could, perhaps, inspire the children in their work. I had discovered a new skill that fascinated me—flexible embroidery (Spin Off Winter 2021, “Flexible Embroidery and Decorative Darning” by Susan Z. Douglas)—and I wanted to combine it with the creation of a vest from scratch. The criteria included use of materials from my Northern California Fibershed, natural dyes (local, where possible), use of my own handspun yarn, and using flexible embroidery to decorate the pockets on the vest. I blended three shades of Shetland from nearby shepherd Lea Stewart for the vest yarn. For the embroidery, I blended two parts white…

I KNIT A LOT OF socks. One year, in fact, I decided to devote myself so exclusively to sock knitting that I produced 52 pairs—one for each week of the year. So you know that when I say I’ve found my preferred method of sock knitting, thanks to the book Knit 2 Socks in 1 by Safiyyah Talley, it’s a big deal. I opened to the first few pages of the book, ready to cast on with fingering-weight sock yarn and a tiny circular needle. Talley’s writing charmingly takes the knitter on a “choose your own adventure” path to make socks that work for each individual style, regardless of preferred method for knitting socks, yarn weight, foot size, or chosen pattern. She did her research. As Talley writes in the introduction:…

Find more articles, patterns, tutorials, podcasts, and videos on our website! Visit spinoffmagazine.com or follow the direct links below to some of our newest content for Spin Off Summer 2024. Meet Clarion Call Fiber Arts Clarion Overmoyer’s handspun is featured on the Summer cover, so we asked her a few questions to learn more about her process and work.  LT.Media/Clarion The Au Lait Scarf Goes Circular Katrina King shares her project instructions for spinning and knitting the Pleats and Ladders motif featured in the Au Lait Scarf (see page 70) as a colorful gradient cowl. Current subscribers can access the full pattern instructions for a cowl version.  LT.Media/Pleat-Cowl A Shepherd’s Take on the Woolgrowers Hat & Cowl Sarah Pope designed this sweet hat and cowl (see page 74) for Farm…

I AM INFINITELY FASCINATED BY the intersection of wellness and crafting, so I was eager to read Liza Laird’s book, Yoga of Yarn. In her introduction, Laird shares her personal journey of using yoga to cope with and recover from the physical and emotional challenges of cancer. During her illness, she grieved the discomfort that knitting caused. Yoga helped her get back to knitting. She now sees “yoga as a pathway to knitting with comfort, ease, and joy throughout all of life’s ups and downs.” She tells us how this discovery spurred her Yoga and Yarn retreats where participants enjoy practicing yoga, meditation, and breathing techniques. All of these activities can be used to become stronger and healthier, not only when knitting, but also in everyday life. I’m a lifelong…

No complete stocking has been found in excavations of the colonial town of Magdalena de Cao Viejo, Peru. Of the two artifacts of cotton knitting that are identifiably stockings, one has stripes of natural and light brown, and the other has stripes of natural and dark brown with a checked pattern. This project combines both elements: a stripe pattern in two natural colors accented by bands of the checkerboard. At least two wool stocking artifacts from Magdalena de Cao Viejo are knee length with some leg shaping, and the cotton examples, although partial, also have a few decreases to shape the leg. The decreases are retained in this project. One surviving cotton stocking has an incomplete rectangular heel flap in garter stitch. Indeed, all of the heels found on cotton…