Spinning and fiber book reviews

Well, I promised book reviews and now you're going to get them. If you're interested, that is.

First book, best book: Spinning in the Old Way by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. The first book I got on spinning and by far the best. It really covers everything a beginner spinner needs to know. I don't want a spinning wheel, so why get a book devoted to operating one? "Spinning" covers spinning with a high-whorl top spindle. Only. Perfect. It's my go-to book when I have a question about S or Z twist. It has lots of pictures. She covers all the basics from carding to finishing, and has comprehensive coverage of commercial tops (already washed, carded products). An excellent book.

Books I didn't like as much tended very heavily towards selecting an entire fleece, checking for flaws, cleaning and carding. That's great if I can get an entire fleece, but I tend to get my fiber by the pound, off the internet.

My second favorite book actually doesn't have much to do with spinning. "In Sheep's Clothing: A Handspinner's Guide to Wool" kept popping up on my search engine every time I typed in wool spinning. Finally, I decided to give the book a try. It is awesome. It tells me exactly what I want to know, is a Romney-Perendale blend going to be lustrous? Bouncy? How durable is it? Micron count? It covers all that and more. I've got it by my bedside and I read it often. It is an awesome handbook to have if you're doing anything related to wool.

However, it only covered wool. "Beyond Wool" is a good book for covering finshed yarns. Silk and cotton yarns don't stretch, I learned. Still, I could use a little more.

Now we get to Teach Yourself Visually, Handspinning. I'm an optimist, so I'll cover the positives first: It has a spectacular coverage of "other" fibers in addition to wool. If I want to know about linen, angora, camel, mohair, anything, it's in there. Each fiber or fiber type has a couple of pages covering preparation, spinning, and finishing. Something I desperately needed. I needed it badly! It also covers some of the fiber properties as well.

Negatives, a lot of the book is very "gadget" oriented. I don't have a wheel, and I don't want one. It covered drum carders, automatic ball winders, and lots and lots on wheels. I'm low tech. I'm happy being low-tech. The hand card, niddy noddy, and nostepinne coverage was good.

Now we get to my gripe. The author mentions in the book that "The top whorl spindle is the most popular in America". So why IF ITS THE MOST POPULAR ALL THE PHOTOS AND DIRECTIONS ARE FOR BOTTOM-WHORL? They show a couple of top whorl spindles in a photo, "Types of spindles" and that's it. GRRRR. If I were trying to learn on a top-whorl spindle the book would be useless. Oh, that cooks my bacon. If you need a book with comprehensive fiber coverage, get Teach Yourself Visually Handspinning.

If you want to learn to spin, stay away from the book and get Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' Spinning in the Old Way.

I hope you found this helpful.