Alternative Fibers

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Spinning Daily offers a free ebook for spinners that explains some alternatives to spinning wool: 

Alternative Fibers  

Dyeing Sources

As the weather begins to transition into Spring, we become impatient to have more color in our surroundings. Satisfy those cravings by dyeing some yarn or fiber.

Robyn Spady complied links and information to make the process easy and successful.

Sewing Machine Needles

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It’s amazing how something as small as a needle can make such a huge impact on your sewing project! 

The right needle for your sewing project can create perfectly even and beautifully made stitches. The wrong needle (even a worn or damaged needle) can create all kinds of headaches—like skipped stitches, crooked stitches, frayed and broken threads, and holes or tears in your fabric. 

So how do you make sure you are choosing the right needle for the sewing project you’re making? And how would you know if the needle is worn or damaged? 

For the answers to those and other questions, read We All Sew's article on sewing machine needles. 

Be sure to download the free BERNINA PDF Needle Brochure as a handy reference.

Pin Loom Manuals

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Vintage Pin Loom instruction manuals (PDF) with patterns as well as information can be downloaded free on eLoomaNation's website. 

Using Hand Carders

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Interweave's free wool combing and carding eBook shows spinners how to get the most out of their fiber combs and cards and how to get beyond commercially prepared fiber by trying new methods and a variety of wool carding tools. 

The free eBook can be found here.

Weaving Yarn Guide (free)

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To avoid unnecessary guesswork and to help make the most of those beautiful yarns, the experts at Interweave have put together a useful, FREE eBook on hand weaving supplies to ensure your success in selecting the perfect weaving yarns and hand weaving supplies. Start with an article providing valuable tips for weaving with yarn, including how to allow for loom waste and take-up. Then learn about designing with a new yarn for either a 2-shaft project or 4-shaft project, or start on the scarf pattern that we’ve included. Finally, take a look at our must-have guide to yarn for every weaver, including details on ends per inch, conversions, a reed chart, and more.

Guide to Processing Wool for Roving

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Interweave's free ebook on Processing Wool to Make Wool Roving provides instructions on how to properly wash wool to how to flick, hand-, and drumcard wool to how to use minicombs. This free eBook should make the process of preparing raw wool for spinning easy and fun for beginners as well as more experienced spinners looking for tips.

The book can be found here.

Felting Fiber

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Making felt has evolved into a fun, creative process—quick and easy, too. All you need is a bit of wool, warm water, wool-safe soap, and some towels, and you're ready to start making cloth in one of the fastest, free form ways you can imagine.

A free ebook from Interweave provides the instructions and some projects to get you started with creating felted fiber. 

Creating Art Yarn

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Whether your taste is more traditional or you’re interested in creating innovative, eye-catching yarn styles, you’ll love the techniques and tips to inspire all spinning enthusiasts to unleash their creative spirit. 

In Interweave's free ebook, Spinning Novelty Yarn: Tips and Techniques for Creating Art Yarn, you’ll find a number of techniques to add to your repertoire for spinning designer yarns—or any yarns.

How to Ply Yarn

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A plied yarn is stronger, more consistent, and more stable than the singles from which it is made. Also, in the ply structure, more of the individual fibers are covered and protected from abrasive wear, light and chemical damage. Whether you’re learning for the first time, want to weigh the benefits of single- vs. multiple-ply yarn, or want tips for plying on a drop spindle, Interweave's free eBook is packed with helpful tips for spinners of all skill levels.

The book contains tips from Maggie Casey, Judith MacKenzie, Rita Buchanan and other spinning masters. The free eBook contains a wealth of information for the beginning spinner and experienced spinner.

Natural Dyeing

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Natural dyeing can be as simple as collecting tansy leaves from your garden or old tea from your cupboard, placing it and a skein of yarn in a canning jar filled with water out on your porch on a sunny day. Of course, it can be more involved as well—it depends on what colors you’re looking for, the fibers you are dyeing, and the pH levels in your water supply.

There are basic rules to dyeing: know your dye, know your fiber, and know your water.

Interweave offers a free Guide to Dyeing Yarn eBook - an essential guide whether you’re a beginner or are experienced in dyeing. 

This book will help you dive into the basics of hand dyeing yarn and understand the different approaches depending on the fiber, from cotton to wool.

Wearing Woad complied a list of Natural Dyeing Resources that may also be helpful.

How to Felt Crochet

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Why should knitters have all the fun felting items? Crochet items can also be felted. Interweave has a free ebook that explains the process and includes four free patterns for experimenting with felting crochet.

The link to the free ebook can be found on this Interweave post.

Embroidery Stitch Booklet

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Embroidery is making a comeback, especially with the Year of Stitches projects. Vicky B. and Sandy W. introduced that challenge to Guild members in January.

Muse of the Morning has a handy stitch booklet that can be printed and placed on a ring for easy reference of embroidery stitches.

Three sets of free templates are offered.

    Section 1

    Section 2

    Section 3

Directory of Fiber Resources

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Interweave originally offered the Natural Fiber Directory as a pull-out section in the Spin-Off magazine, but now it is a free e-book Natural Fiber Directory that can be downloaded on a tablet or smart phone. 

It's a  one-stop, easy-to-take-with-you listings of fiber resources from around the world. These listings are important for searching for the perfect fleece for a project, and also for the spinning community as a whole.

Weaving for Kids

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Interweave has a free ebook of weaving project to do with kids.

Clear, step-by-step kids weaving loom instructions in Weaving for Kids: Free Weaving Patterns for Kids guide weavers through the process of creating a cardboard loom from a box to create a unique tapestry bag plus fun felted winter accessories. Great for any beginner, the techniques learned in these kids weaving projects can lead to endless possibilities. See the love and joy of handweaving come to life for any child exploring these fun and easy projects.

How to Choose and Use a Wheel

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Interweave is offering a free ebook on how to Use and Choose a Spinning Wheel.

The book gives advice from spinning experts:

Maggie Casey
Denise Jackson
Rudy Amann

More information on the book can be found here. Share the link with anyone who is thinking of learning the craft of spinning.

Weaving Designs

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Weavers, if you're looking for some inspiration for weaving designs, look no further than The Large Book of Textile Designs by Frank Donat that is available free online.

It was scanned by Ralph Griswold and is available at the On-Line Digital Archive of Documents on Weaving and Related Topics - link provided above.

The designs could also be helpful for Fair Isle knitters.

More information and documents can be found here on the University of Arizona website.

Natural Dyes and Weaving

Interested in learning more about Natural Dyes and Weaving? Sara Morgan Ward prepared a book on the topic in 2001.

The book is available free online and covers the following topics:

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The book can be read online or downloaded in a variety of methods - (see image below)

Handbook of Weaves

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Published in 1915, A Handbook of Weaves is a treasure trove of unique source of weaves (over 300 pages) are available in a variety of downloads (see below).

Ebook - Guide to Processing Wool

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Spinning Daily is offering a free ebook: A Guild to Processing Wool to Make Wool Roving on their website.

The book covers various topics:
    Preparing Wool
    Washing Wool
    Flick Carding
    Hand Carding
    Drumcarding
    Minicombs

Other free ebooks offered by Spinning Daily can be found here