New fiber books!

Interweave Press was having a sale recently, and as there were a couple of books and a DVD I had been wanting to order, I gave in and bought them.

The DVD I bought is called "Spinning for Lace". As I thoroughly enjoy knitting lace, and I also prefer to spin my own yarns, I thought it would be pretty useful.  It has information about washing raw locks, tension, plying, and more.  I have not opened it and watched it yet, but it's here for when I am ready for my next lace project.

One of the books is called "Get Spun" and it's all about art yarns.  I am familiar with most art yarn techniques and I have the Pluckyfluff books, but this book sounded like it has a section about using a drum carder for different effects. Since I haven't had the chance to play with carders a lot before, and I am not sure what to try next, I thought this would give me a little insight and inspiration.  The information contained in it turns out to be about blending fibers evenly, but that's also useful, and I will be using that later as well.  There's not a whole lot of new stuff for me in this book, but it'd be awesome for someone who has been spinning traditionally and wants to expand, or someone who is completely new to fibers.

The book I am most excited about is "The Complete Guide to Natural Dyeing".  I have been interested in natural dyeing for quite a while, but I have never known where to get started, and the information on the internet can have large holes in it.  This book is a pretty comprehensive guide to using plants for dyeing.  You can choose your page based on the color you want, or you can look up various plants to see what colors you might get.  It talks about various mordants and how to use fresh vs. dried plants.  There is also information about storing plants or bark or berries for future use.  I am super excited about this book, especially because it's getting to be summer - the sun is out and the plants are growing!

We'll see what I start out with, but I'm thinking I'll find shield ferns or ivy and see what kind of greens I can get from them.