The Intentional Spinner

So you want to learn to spin. Of course you do. I did. Why? I have no idea, kind of seemed like the next direction to take my fiber addiction. And, doesn’t everyone need another hobby?

Enter Interweave Press and Judith MacKenzie McCuin’s book, “The Intentional Spinner”. First off, this book has really cool pictures, and lots of them. I’m a sucker for eye candy, what can I say, I blame it on the fiber addictions. In this book, Judith breaks it all down, from the ground up, from the different forms of fiber bases, cellulose, protein and manufactured, and puts them all together again, you actually know what you’re working with. And people! There are charts in this book! Charts!

Let that one sink in for a minute!

Are you back? Ok. In one section she talks about not only having yarn that is beautiful coming right off the wheel, but aiming for yarn that is gorgous plied, and worked up into your knitting. Knowing ahead of time how to get just the right twist so that the yarn will be just as nice in it’s final resting place as it was right off the wheel.

Preview the book, here: http://www.interweave.com/spin/books/IntentionalSpinner/preview.asp

And…. pssst…… there are patterns in this book too!!

There’s a lot to like about the Eloise Bandana from Katryn Seeburger. This cute little colorwork triangle can be worked as a bandana or kerchief size or a bigger shawlette.

It’s worked in two colors of fingering weight yarn so you can use whatever yarn you have in your stash and just make it as big as you can (since it is worked from the bottom up).

You can see the two sizes from the photo, and also two colorwork options: strawberries and lily of the valley.

But that’s not all the choices you have. In fact, there are 34 different charts you can choose from to knit onto your project. Some of the options include happy faces, a lobster, a pumpkin, a snail and a butterfly. There are cherries, peaches, tomatoes and radishes.

There’s even a blank square you can use to draw your own little design if you want to use something else. Or keep it blank and make it a plain checkerboard design.

And while both of these shawls use the same icons throughout, you could also use different designs throughout if you want. Say a fall version with a bat, pumpkin, leaf and acorn, or a summer beach theme with sailboat, fish, lobster and a bird? I keep suggesting four different icons because the larger size has four rows of squares, but the smaller has three, so you could do stripes of the same icon or alternate a couple of different ones, whatever you like.

Look through the finished projects on the Ravelry project page to see lots of different options, from rows to individual icons. There are also some projects that are smaller than the suggested size to make a smaller bandana. You could also keep going a make a bigger shawl working increases in the same way as you have been going.

Check out all the details and grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Katryn Seeburger]

Have you read?