Where can I find out of print fiber art books?

By Amelia © April 27, 2010

A very nice commenter recently pointed out to me that I should check abebooks.com for an out of print book I am currently in search of. That's a great place to check, definitely on my list.

When I'm looking for an older book, the first place I check is typically Amazon.com. Why? Because that tells me fairly quickly if the book is still in print, and if it might be available at a reasonable price used.

However, Amazon.com's prices on second-hand books are not set by Amazon, or necessarily by market demand. I noticed this myself in getting my own book, Productive Spindling, to be sold by Amazon (they carry inventory in their warehouses -- that was certainly a feeling of arrival, alongside finding US and Canadian distributors for the book; I'm still in search of Australian and European distributors ... but I digress, so the parenthetical remark stops here!). A few months after the book got listed, a vendor is offering the book "used" for over $35 dollars ... wow! This, despite the fact that it's available, in stock, for $18.00 there, on my website, on Unicorn Crafts, and at a wide variety of Local Yarn Stores across the US and Canada.

So, if an out of print books is offered at over retail on Amazon.com, or simply not available there, I don't give up. There are some other places I check:

• abebooks.com (not abebooks on eBay, a different entity AFAIK)
  
• alibris.com
  
• overstock.com (someday I'll get lucky!)
  
• the publisher's website, like interweave.com -- some publishers also sell directly to the retail market. In fact, call them -- they may have damaged copies you can get at a discount. I got Color In Spinning half off that way, a few years back.
  
• unicornbooks.com -- they distribute craft books from a variety of publishers (including Productive Spindling), and also sell retail.
  
• half.com -- a surprising number of books show up here, or used to -- I know they were purchased by eBay a while back, and haven't really shopped there much lately.
  
• eBay.com -- it may be in an eBay store, or in an auction; check "completed listings" to see if it's been listed recently, that can be encouraging (or let you know just how much it goes for).
  
• bn.com -- Barnes & Noble has a fair number of books, I recently found Margaret Stove's Creating Original Hand-knitted Lace" there at a reasonable price, it isn't even available on Amazon.com, and high (over-) priced elsewhere.
  
• my new favorite "local" haunt is powells.com -- the store in Portland is h.u.g.e and the website shares the wide-ranging wares. There, I found an out of print copy of Marian Powell's Shadow Weave book (sorry, my fellow workshop participants must have gobbled up the other 3 copies, as they now list it as sold out).
  
• There's also kbbspin.org ... and my other favorite used wheel and used loom hangouts. Sometimes books show up there, so it's handy to check, just in case.
  
• and then, if my favorite haunts don't turn it up, I will type in the author & title to google.com. Now, shopping via google is a less controlled proposition than going to a known website like amazon.com -- you have no idea if the vendors there are reliable, fly-by-night, or even in the same country. So do your homework, and check up on them. However, this did turn up a very reasonably priced copy ($8.50 as I write this) of Xenakis' 3-heddle instruction book at Montana Looms. And a fresh google of it today shows it as also available at yarn.com for $8.95 ... both websites are businesses I know, so I can do my shopping there safely.
  

Now, my story doesn't end there. If none of those find the book, I may still call a few local area yarn stores ... this was how I found a retail-price copy of Muller's Handwoven Laces, pricey on Amazon, eBay and other places second-hand. So I got a new, shop copy at regular retail. Yay!

If there has still been no joy on the search, I'll go back to the ones that offer notification ... Alibris, Abebooks, eBay, Powell's Books ... and set up notification, so if they should get a copy, I will get an email message about it. Sometimes, patience wins the day.

That said, some books I would love to have, I will continue to borrow from my local library or the spinning guild's library, as they are being updated and reprinted. So the high-price used copies out there aren't worth it for me -- I am looking forward to the new edition's arrival. This includes Anne Field's Spinning Beyond The Basics and Helen Bress' The Weaving Book.

Which reminds me ... many fiber and weaving guilds maintain local libraries of their own, with books that may never appear in your public library. Some guilds cover quite large areas: NwRSA has a lending library by mail for members in its large area, and Complex Weavers similarly has a members' library-by-mail. And, my local weaving buddies have bookshelves with books and magazines back to the 70s -- so there are many fine resources open to me.

Sometimes, a wonderful book may show up available electronically -- Peter Collingwood's Rug Weaving tome is free-for-the-downloading at handweaving.net. The nice thing (for buyers) about books like that is that it keeps the print copies within the range of buying, when they show up -- second-hand copies of this book are useful, as it is quite thick. But $40-$60 is much more accessible than the over $100 books this size are often found for when out of print.

My current book search, as mentioned earlier, remains unfulfilled. The book? I have a copy on loan from a weaving buddy. It is Erica de Ruiter's Weaving on 3 Shafts. I've done my usual searches, and now need to go back and set up notifications. Some day I will have this book, and will be able to scribble my marginalia directly on it, as I work my way through this book stuffed with interesting ideas.

I'd be interested to hear of your favorite book haunts and search methods, too. Thanks for reading!

~~~~

That stack of books at the top are books that talk about spindling, from my shelves -- some purchased new, some second-hand, some searched for high-and-low to buy at a reasonable price. They appear in Productive Spindling, in the Spindler's Bibliography -- also available here on Ask The Bellwether. Someday my weaving may have a similar focus and depth on a particular topic, right now it's still pretty wide-ranging though I see a definite interest in twills developing (happy grin).

© April 27, 2010 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/blog

How do I choose a speed setting on my e-spinner?

By Amelia © April 20, 2010

The explosion of interest in e-spinning, sparked in part by the cute-and-amazing Hansen miniSpinner, is generating many interesting conversations over on Ravelry, on the electric spinners group and the recently formed HansenCrafts MiniSpinner group.

I've been contemplating for a while how you would approach explaining electric spinners and their use, both to non-spinners learning to spin on one, and to wheel spinners who have their built-in rhythm of treadle and draft. So, here are some thoughts on the topic of choosing a speed setting on your e-spinner.

I like to think of the speed dial on the e-spinner (and all the ones I've spun on -- Fricke, Ashford, Butterfly, and Hansen) as a clockface. Your particular maker's e-spinner may turn through the whole face, may only turn from 7 o'clock to 5 o'clock, or may have an even shorter "range" on its clock face -- so be sure to consult any documentation that came with it, and don't push the knob further than it is capable of going. My "times" here will refer to the Hansen miniSpinner -- you may find some variation in your own.

So, let's say you're spinning along, and stop to check out your yarn.

If there’s not enough twist in your singles, then increase the speed; that’s the fastest (no pun intended!) way to get more twist in them. Another thing that can help is minimizing the scotch tension -- I usually set mine so that any less would have me at no draw-in at all. That lets you hang on to the single a little longer before it is drawn onto the bobbin, so more twist can get in your yarn. I did a post about testing singles for underspun-ness a while back, if it’s helpful to add more, it’s here. The third alternative is to hold on to your new yarn for a beat or two before allowing it to be drawn onto the bobbin -- this adds more twist, as you aren't drafting, and twist is still going in to the yarn.

If there's too much twist in your singles, then decrease the speed. This will put twist in more slowly. You can also increase the scotch tension, so the bobbin pulls the yarn onto it more aggressively. If you are a relatively new spinner, it is likely that you are not drafting very quickly. Over time, you will find your drafting speed increases, and the amount of twist in them decreasing -- refer to the previous paragraph on how to handle that.

A great book about controlling twist is Judith MacKenzie McCuin’s The Intentional Spinner -- she covers a wide range of manual wheel information for speed control. What she says about scotch tension we can carry through unchanged. But where she talks about pulleys and changing ratios, we can adjust our engine’s speed. If JMM tells me to use a smaller pulley/higher ratio, I will move my dial clockwise a bit more. If JMM tells me to use a larger pulley/lower ratio, I will move my dial counter-clockwise a bit more.

I usually adjust my Hansen miniSpinner speed dial “by the hour”. I use 9:00 for low twist fat singles, 12:00 for moderate twist “default” singles, and 3:00 for high twist cobweb (very, very fine) singles. I’ll use 10, 11, 1, and 2 for points in-between, and may make finer adjustments to suit my drafting speed at that moment. Now, that’s me, and every spinner has their own pace -- so your settings may vary. Also, I know the Woolee Winder has more drag than the hook/slider flyers, so models of the same e-spinner with hook/slider flyers have a higher top speed than the Woolee Winder models.

I usually adjust my scotch tension brake “by the minute”, that is, I make very small adjustments to it to increase or decrease tension -- a tiny little nudge on it can make a huge difference when I’m trying to get down to that almost-nil draw-in, and only a tiny nudge is needed, typically, to maintain draw-in once the bobbin is 3/4 full.

~~~~

And, a few months in, how am I enjoying my miniSpinner? Quite a bit! It's helped me increase my treadling speed, I can ply super-duper quick, and I've finally created the perfect (for me!) 3-ply sock yarn. And did I mention that it's quiet? Lovely for spinning in the evenings during the family chat in the sitting room. Next up: the perfect 4-ply sock yarn :-) and a whole bunch of laceweight pygora, since the first 6 ounces was a total blast!

The singles on the bobbin in the opening shot were part of a skein I sent to Humanity Handspun -- and it sold :-) I'm a huge fan of what Tina's doing with HH, raising money for a good cause and supporting fiber artists at the same time. So you're likely to see more of my yarn in their online store in the near future.

~~~~

© April 20, 2010 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/blog

What is coming at Ask The Bellwether?

By Amelia © April 15, 2010

Exploring spinning has been quite an adventure for me, and I look forward to continuing my adventures in the years to come. This last weekend was quite a milestone - being the presenter for the Whidbey Spin-In meant lecturing (eeek) one day and then running a workshop for 100+ people the second day. Yep, one teacher (me), 100+ participants ... it's a very interesting environment to teach in, and makes a normal class of 15-20 seem that much less intimidating.

In the past year I've been exploring weaving as well. I'm still very much a student there, though I've contributed a few book reviews to WeaveZine and posted some of my findings on my blog. I'm sure it will be a continuing area of study for me, since I find it so fascinating.

As you, my regular (and new) readers know, I like to share what I know. It's been a challenge to balance teaching, retail sales, product development, shows, and writing. If you keep a close eye on the webstore, you know that product selection has been decreasing in some areas, and also that recently I've made e-booklets available, the written form of my workshops. I like being up-front and clear about where Ask The Bellwether is heading. You are likely to see fewer hard products and more e-booklets as I polish the workshop handouts. I am likely to offer kits after having a workshop if extra materials are available -- including fiber, spindles, dyes or other materials and tools. I expect to continue being SpinOlution's Washington state dealer as well, as I enjoy their wheels and their product plans are very exciting!

And yes, as several people asked at the Whidbey Spin-In, I do plan to write more books on spinning - I've no firm plans for the next book yet, but have some favorite topics in mind.

Why the shift in direction? I'm taking a leaf from the writings of Wake Up Cloud, and following my bliss. This direction feels right; I hope you enjoy it as much as I am.

© April 15, 2010 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/blog

Everything Old is New Again...

By Amelia © April 13, 2010

Everything old is new again: that includes the resurgence in interest in rigid heddle looms.

Handwoven magazine puts rigid heddle specific projects in pretty much every issue now. WeaveZine tracks its rigid heddle projects, even providing a special button you can put on your own WeaveZine home screen. Schacht's newsletter provides a variety of projects, with the rigid heddle projects getting their fair share of the time vs. the 4-shaft and 8-shaft looms and the inkle loom they also produce.

I've been doing my level best to track rigid heddle news on the internet in The Rigid Heddle, a tumblr-log of links to what I've found; and RigidHeddleWeaving.com shares a great collection of videos and tips.

So it was with great interest that I saw the cover call-out in the March/April 2010 Handwoven Doubleweave issue, "Rigid-Heddle Doubleweave". Doubly cool because it's an excerpt from Jane Patrick's soon-to-be-here book, The Weaver's Idea Book: Creative Cloth on a Rigid Heddle Loom. The article is a great read, full of complex ideas for doing on the rigid heddle what other articles in the issue did on multi-shaft looms.

The rigid heddle has been the loom I've enjoyed the most, much like enjoying my spindles more than my wheels. It simplifies the process, lets me explore the interaction of warp and weft, and actually gives me a machine I can complexify with only a few simple pick-up sticks -- flat rulers work great, especially on my scarf-width warps.

And being a lover of studying topics, I keep going back to my books.  I noticed that Betty Davenport refers to the Kircher rigid heddle instruction book as being very informative, as well as her thorough bibliography of her own Handwoven articles.

That led me to the reason for the title of this post. In my stack of old Handwovens was the May/June 1992 issue, on ... Double weave! And, lo-and-behold, a piece, "Double Weave on the Rigid Heddle Loom", by Betty Davenport. Cool!

It was very interesting to consider the two pieces -- from 1992 and from 2010 -- side by side.  The early piece was simpler, focusing on simply getting double weave cloth, two separate layers, with some interactions such as tubes. The later piece included the next step in double weave, interleaving the layers and switching the layers around during weaving. The earlier piece had line drawings of heddles, threadings, and pickup-stick placement, while the newer piece had photographs of each step.  For me, the line drawings were a little more clear -- less busy, reduced to essentials. The photographs that were most helpful, that the line drawings can't convey as easily, were of the resulting woven cloth.

I am glad to have both issues available to me, and will continue to watch for upcoming books I can apply to my rigid heddle weaving, even as I search for used copies of out of print books. Stephanie Gaston-Voute's translation of Weaving on Kircher Looms recently arrived on my doorstep, and in its 1970s fashion, it is jam-packed with details in the text that I will have to tease out with heddle-hook and shuttle.

~~~

Another rigid heddle book I recently enjoyed is Woven Treasures: One-of-a-Kind Bags with Folk Weaving Techniques. It contains a ton of ideas I can do on my rigid heddle loom, on my multi-shaft loom (it's just plain weave, after all), and even on my tapestry loom, in a pinch. A Persian carpet bag may yet be in my future.

Two out-of-print weaving books I'm looking for: Erica de Ruiter's books, Weaving with Three Heddles and Tejido Huave. If you aren't using your copy, let me know!

~~~~
© April 13, 2010 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/blog