Start Spinning: Everything You Need to Know to Make Great Yarn
By Maggie Casey. Interweave Press (April 1, 2008)

If you are a fibre fiend, or you feel that buying yarn for your crochet or knitting just isn’t enough, or you just love the feel of raw wool running through your fingers, or even if you have a Sleeping Beauty fixation, you will have thought of spinning your own yarn.

Start Spinning is a great resource for the beginning spinner, or for a spinner that has been spinning for a while, but might only really only know one way to do it. And like other pleasurable pursuits, there are so many ways to do it!

Maggie Casey holds the hand of anyone wanting to learn about spinning, and includes information on wool, spinning on a spindle and a wheel, using and maintaining all sorts of spinning wheels, plying and finishing yarn, drafting and wool preparation, and using your hand spun yarn. Maggie Casey is a spinning teacher, and I think that she must be a quite a gifted teacher by the way she explains concepts and skills so wonderfully.

I would imagine that all of the information included in Start Spinning would be available online, but it is such a pleasure to have so much useful information in one volume. This book has tons of clear photographs explaining exactly what to do, and a great troubleshooting section.

It was really refreshing to read a crafting how-to book that doesn’t include projects that get in the way of the instruction and information, and that can date the book so quickly.

So dust of your niddy noddy and get your lazy kate twirling, and Start Spinning.

About the author: Kate is a busy mother of four and has far too many craft projects on the go at any one time. These could include, but are not limited to, crochet, sewing, dyeing, paper making, spinning, felting and bookbinding. Kate has challenges in the areas of finishing things, saying no and craft supplies storage. She also has a very very patient and tolerant husband.

Bead Simple: Essential Techniques for Making Jewelry Just the Way You Want It by Susan Beal (of west coast crafty) and published by Taunton (March 25, 2008)

The book Bead Simple is a great concept, simple designs which are then made into variations by other designers and crafters who give their own personal flair to the basic design.

The book is very well laid out – excellent introduction and beginner instructions section at the front, very detailed “how to get started” and technical know how – perfect for the beginner beader. And there are lots of projects in here – this is a big book full of projects and their spin-offs. Lots of inspiration in here for the beginning beader

Susan’s idea with this book is to give the user a basic concept of what is possible with beading techniques and to encourage them to go out and create. There is probably not too much here for the more experienced beader, the projects are really quite plain and really rely upon the end user putting their own personal touch onto the designs. There are some exceptions to this of course, I did love the vintage button projects and the wearables – beads and ornaments stitched and incorporated into clothing and apparel are really inspired. I thought the charm bracelets to be quite charming and the belts terrific too. Other projects I thought stood out from the crowd were the ‘hardware store bracelet’ made using washers and jump rings and heavy brass chains found at the hardware and fishing tackle supply store.