Start Spinning by Maggie Casey

This is the basic “intro to spinning” book that I’ve been looking for. The subtitle is “Everything You Need to Know to Make Great Yarn,” and the book lives up to both title and subtitle—not that you couldn’t go a lot deeper, once you get started, but this book covers everything a beginning spinner needs to know.

The book is clearly written, informative, and filled with photographs that illustrate equipment, wool and prepared fiber types, and spinning and drafting techniques. Ms. Casey starts out with an introduction to wool, explaining qualities like staple length, microns, crimp, and so on, and how these differ from breed to breed, before covering some of the most common forms of commercially-prepared wool (roving, combed top, sliver, and batts) as well as hand-carded rolags. She then defines the vocabulary of spinning, covers the general types of spindles and explains how to use a drop spindle. She identifies all the parts of a spinning wheel, explains the differences between scotch and irish tension, single and double drive, and offers examples of a variety of bobbins, flyers, and wheels from several manufacturers. She discusses in detail how to spin using a spinning wheel, offers clear explanations (with accompanying photographs) of various drafting techniques, talks about how to recognize and avoid over- and under-twist, gives several options for plying (including one for plying on a spindle), and goes into how to skein your plied yarn and wash to set the twist. She lays out the differences between spinning “woolen” or “worsted,” The author even offers some thoughts on using your handspun yarn. Finally, two appendices discuss, although in less depth, how to choose, wash, prepare (card), and store a fleece, and how to maintain your spinning wheel.

After a year and a half of spinning (albeit not as frequently or diligently as I would wish), I’m not exactly a novice, but I’m still enough of a beginner to find Start Spinning extremely useful. I borrowed it from the library, but I will be adding it to my fiber-arts bookshelves as soon as I can find a copy.