Follow along with Eunny Jang as she learns the ins and outs of spinning from spinning teacher extraordinaire Maggie Casey. This 2-disc DVD set will take you from just wool to good yarn and beyond. Learn how, when, and why to pre-draft your fiber; how to adjust your spinning wheel; how to spin good single yarn; and how to ply and finish a good skein. Plus, you'll see the basics for carding and combing, spinning with a long draw, spinning worsted weight, spinning from the fold, and more.
From Linda Ligon - Editorial Director
Spinimation–The Maggie and Eunny Show
I’ve rattled on for
years about how hard it is to put spinning instruction in print. It’s
such a dynamic, process-intensive craft—so hard to capture in one-shot
increments. For all my carrying on, though, I think we’ve done a pretty
good job. Thirty-two years of Spin-Off,
and more books than I can even remember. And this printed material
really has helped people learn to spin, either on a spindle or on a
spinning wheel, and improve their skills.
One of the best of the books is Maggie Casey’s Start Spinning. And the best possible “spinoff,” if you’ll forgive me, is her Start Spinning: the Video.
It’s Maggie the Teacher in action, from choosing a good beginning fiber
to predrafting to making a good singles to plying and finishing. And
then it goes on from there. Two solid discs full, more than two hours
of viewing time.
If you’ve ever had a
class with Maggie, you know she is probably the calmest spinning
teacher on the planet. It’s bound to be a part of her success. Getting
beginners over the “white knuckle” phase where they’re afraid to let go
of the yarn is one of the most important steps. I’ve even known of
teachers who employed alcohol, the drinkable kind, for this step.
Maggie just employs great serenity.
One thing that makes
this DVD set special is that it’s not just Maggie talking to the
camera, as pleasant as that would be. Great teachers flourish when they
have great students, and Maggie has Eunny Jang.
What you may not
know is she is also yarn-obsessed, and one of her dreams is to learn to
spin exactly the yarn she wants for the project in her fertile
imagination. So as Maggie’s Student-for-a-Day, she asks all the right
questions—the ones you would probably ask if you had been there. Such
as:
• Why do you have
to spin your singles in the Z direction? You don’t. But the traditions
behind this standard may surprise you.
• Why would you want to spin a worsted-style yarn for a cable
sweater and a woolen-style yarn for color stranding? There are good
reasons, and we’ll show you how to spin both, but as a spinner you can
do whatever you want.
• Why does the fiber just whip right out of your hand and onto the
bobbin sometimes when you least expect it? Ahh. Here’s how to get
around that annoyance.
And so on. If you are just learning to spin on a spinning wheel, or if
you want a refresher, or just another point of view, here’s what you
need. I know I’m sounding like a salesman instead of a creative
director, but I can’t help it. These DVDs are just so good.
—Linda Ligon