Spinning Dyed Fibers

Several weeks ago, I was out in Colorado filming one of Craftsy.com’s first spinning class offerings, called “Spinning Dyed Fibers“. And I’m so excited that it’s finally launched and available now!

You all know I love colour. I’ve been dyeing and spinning and indulging myself in colour since early 2005. I’ve had spiritual encounters with colour. I’ve taught colour. Hell, I even quit my design career to start a business entirely about fibre arts and colour. And now Craftsy has given me a chance to share my love of spinning colour with you!

In my class, we tackle the big questions about colour:

• How to get or not get “mud”?
• How do I keep my colours clear and true?
• How do I spin this fibre to draw out the best qualities?

We start by learning about how fibre preparation affects your final yarn and the appearance of colour. I cover the foundations of colour theory and how it specifically applies to handspun yarn. We also look at how different fibres can be dyed and what to look for when you shop for your own fibre to spin. My class is designed to help you build your own toolkit of techniques, like different ways to keep colours distinct and separate and multiple methods to mix and blend colours to make more muted, subdued yarns. The more tricks in your bag, the more options you have when you approach an intimidatingly beautiful braid of hand-dyed fibre.

The actual Craftsy learning platform is fantastic. The video and audio is all HD quality so you can get in close and see the details of what I’m spinning. It’s fully interactive and community-focused… you can ask questions throughout the lessons and I will pop online and answer your questions, or other students might answer too. And of course, you can stop and watch and re-watch sections whenever you want to — access to the course never expires.

Our studio even prepared spinning kits for you to use and follow along with the course, if you like. Each Spinning Color Six-Pack contains 1 oz of each of six colourways, hand dyed on our Superwash Bluefaced Leicester wool. (Canadian customers can get their kits directly from us since Craftsy does not yet ship to Canada.)

Craftsy has generously provide our readers with a link to 50% off the class registration fee: https://www.craftsy.com/spindyed

If you are interested in learning to spin, you might also check out Drucilla Pettibone’s class “Spindling: From Fluff to Stuff” where she’ll teach you how to get started with a drop spindle. I’d also recommend Deb Robson’s class “Know Your Wool” where she covers the difference between wool breeds, fine/medium/long wools and breed-specific wools. Excellent, essential information for anyone — knitter, spinner, or weaver.

I hope you will join me in spinning colour on the Craftsy platform and I’m looking forward to seeing all your colourful handspun skeins soon!

A little blog tour is also in the works… if you’d like to be a stop on the blog tour, let me know!