Books

Books for Beginners

If you want to learn how to spin yarn, or if already know the basics of how to spin but still consider yourself a beginner, you’ll want to check out these great books.

Start Spinning: Everything You Need to Know to Make Great Yarn by Maggie Casey is sure to be a classic. Maggie takes you through all the steps for spinning yarn, from preparing the fiber to spinning yarn using a spindle or a spinning wheel, to plying and finishing. Well written and illustrated with excellent photographs.


A Handspindle Treasury: Collected Works from the Save the Sheep Exhibit is one of the best books around on the history and usage of the handspindle. This book covers all types of spindles, including top and bottom whorl drop spindles and supported spindles such as tahklis and Navajo spindles.


The Whole Craft of Spinning: From the Raw Material to the Finished Yarn by Carol Kroll is another excellent ‘learn how to spin’ book. This book shows you all the basics, including preparing fiber, spinning on a drop spindle and wheel, plying and finishing your yarn. You’ll also find some information about the history of spinning in this book.


Hands on Spinning by Lee Raven is a wonderful book for anyone new to the craft of spinning. The book is well-written and well illustrated and includes all the topics you’d expect: spinning with a hand spindle, spinning with a spinning wheel, fiber preparations, drafting techniques, plying, and finishing your yarn.


Spinning in the Old Way: How (and Why) To Make Your Own Yarn With A High-Whorl Handspindle by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts has a singular focus: how to spin on a top whorl drop spindle (or as she refers to it, a high whorl drop spindle). You’ll find information here on how to choose the right spindle, as well as some very well-illustrated information on basic spinning techniques.


Spin to Knit: The Knitter’s Guide to Making Yarn by Shannon Okey is a great introduction to the world of handspinning. The book covers using handspindles and spinning wheels, and has some great patterns for using your handspun yarn. This would be a good first book for anyone who knits and is curious about spinning but doesn’t necessarily want to dive right into the deep end. Shannon encourages you to use your handspun in creative ways and combine it with store-bought yarn so you don’t feel like you need to spin a whole sweater’s worth of yarn your first time out.

Books for Advanced Spinners

If you’re past the beginner’s stage and you want to learn some advanced spinning techniques, you’ll want to buy a couple of these books.

A Fine Fleece: Knitting with Handspun Yarns by Lisa Lloyd delves into a topic that hasn’t received nearly enough coverage, at least in my opinion: what to knit with your handspun yarns. If you’re a knitter, you’ll love this book – the patterns have a classic yet modern feel to them and seem to be well-written, and the pictures are beautiful. Spinners will find the information about wool types, blending fiber, and spinning the right yarn for your project invaluable.

Intertwined: The Art of Handspun Yarn, Modern Patterns and Creative Spinning (Handspun Revolution) by Lexi Boeger is for the spinner who is interested in expanding his or her creative boundaries by spinning novelty or art yarns. Lexi also gives some great suggestions on how to use these unusual yarns in projects.

Spinning Designer Yarns by Diane Varney will help you take your spinning beyond the basics by teaching you some more advanced spinning techniques. You’ll find some instructions and illustrations here on how to make slub yarns, core-spun yarns and snarl yarns, just to name a few of the techniques that are covered.

In Sheep’s Clothing: A Handspinner’s Guide to Wool by Nola Fournier has so much information about all different breeds of sheep wool that every spinner will want it in their library. This book will give you the details you need to know about the distinctive characteristics of the wool from the more common – and some of the less common – sheep breeds, which will help you decide what type of wool would be right for the project you have in mind.

Color in Spinning by Deb Menz will show you how to dye or blend fibers for specific color effects. Deb presents some helpful information about color theory in an easily digestible manner, then goes on to give some well-illustrated examples on how to put this knowledge to use in your spinning projects.

Creative Spinning by Alison Daykin will inspire those that want to spin art yarns. The book is organized by fiber type, and gives you some good ideas about what techniques work best with what fibers.


The Alden Amos Big Book of Handspinning: Being a Compendium of Information, Advice, and Opinion on the Noble Art and Craft is considered by some to be the spinning bible. Amos is very opinionated (for example, he seems to disapprove of the double-treadle wheel), but he knows his stuff. If can get past his writing style (and a lot of people can’t because it can come off as somewhat condescending at times), you’ll find a lot of solid technical spinning information here.