Creative Spinning (Gaia Traditional Crafts)

Spring 09

Alison Daykin and Jane Deane set out to encourage new and experienced spinners and knitters through beautiful visuals. Their book is filled with stunning, clear-focused photos of fibers, yarn, knitted swatches, and nature, with little narration. This is a book to keep near your wheel and allow it to lure you back into your spinning. Or keep the book on a coffee table to entice any visitors into our spinning world. My favorite photos are on the chapter division pages. Here they have taken close-up photos of the featured fiber, enlarging them tow or three times, filling the pages completely to the edges. Often I found myself sensing the softness of the fiber through the incredible depth of field in this photos. Each set of pages presents a new yarn/project idea, linked with an inspirational photo from nature. There are thirty in all. Each includes a small swatch as invitation to consider the minimally described knitting project. The spinning instructions are short and sometimes too simple, with frequent references to the first chapter on how to spin.The instruction section is so condensed that it's really not a beginner's book - except for its invitation into the world of spinning...I have owned this book since it was published, and still I am truly inspired looking at the photos of fibers, yarns, swatches and nature.-Patsy Sue Zawistoski