Skip to main content

Best Reference Books for Handspinners (from the School of SweetGeorgia Instructors)

Ask any writer, and they will tell you that books will never wholly go out of style. This could be why so many spinners and industry pros rely on their collections of hard copy, spinning-themed reference books. We keep these works where they are easily accessible and refer to them time and again because we can count on the accuracy we find within these pages.

We, your School of SweetGeorgia handspinning instructors (Diana, Katrina, Kim, Rachel, and Debbie), thought we’d share with you an index of our own most used titles. We encourage you to read those that appeal to you so that you can start (or add to) your own at-the-ready reference library.

Please note: For ease of reference, this list is in alphabetical order, by title. Some titles are no longer in print, but most can be acquired through online sellers, including Amazon, Abe Books, and eBay. (One or two are self-published and available only from the authors.) Please do your research as to the best prices and sellers’ reputations.

Spinning books- Held's library
Keeping my spinning books in one area of my bookshelf means they’re always within easy reach.

Our Favourite Spinning Reference Books

A-G

H-L

M-R

S

T

U-Z

Final Thoughts

I keep my reference books within arm’s reach of my desk and my laptop, as I most often refer to them to fact-check my articles. I don’t keep the titles in alphabetical order. Rather, I group my reference books by theme: weaving, sewing, and handspinning.

Held's Library of spinning books
I like to sort my reference books by category: (L-R) sewing, weaving, and spinning books are grouped together on a shelf in my office area.

I once had a professional organizer tell me that we all think differently, so it’s best to file items in the way that works best with your own brain. (This is the reason it can be so challenging to find an item after “cleaning up” a space!) Wherever you build your spinning library is fine, so long as you can access the books easily and you know where they are when you need them.

Industry magazines can also be a terrific source of trusted (and beautiful!) spinning material for the ages, so be sure to keep them after reading them.

What about digital titles? Digital downloads make for beautiful and handy reading on any device, and they tend to be more affordable than hard-copy publications. I prefer leafing through a book when I have a question (it’s much faster for me), though I definitely do have a few titles stored in my Kindle library, too.

Magazine holders with sticker labels
Spinning magazines make for wonderful reference and inspiration. I like to store/file mine by publication and year, in handy magazine organizers.

Did we miss any of your favourite titles? Let us know in the comments here, in the School of SweetGeorgia forums or on the SweetGeorgia Discord channel.

Original publication: September 22th, 2022; Refreshed: March 6th, 2025 

The post Best Reference Books for Handspinners (from the School of SweetGeorgia Instructors) appeared first on SweetGeorgia Yarns.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Crocheting Granny Squares for the Jethro Cardigan

Image
Crochet Granny Squares are just so much fun to make! Just… one… more round… one more square… For today’s Taking Back Friday episode, I talk about the crochet granny squares I have been making at every possible moment for this past month. I’ve recently been inspired by the Jethro cardigan design by Tanis Lavallee from Tanis Fiber Arts. The Jethro cardigan combines both knitting and crochet in one project. You start by crocheting a bunch of classic granny squares, and then join them all together. Then, you pick up for knitting the sleeves and trim. It’s a really fun and easy way to play with colour, especially with making your own palettes and colour combinations. Mini-skein sets work perfectly to allow for fun colour play with these granny squares The goal of making these granny squares is to play with colour, but I didn’t want to go and buy 6 to 10 full skeins of DK-weight yarn in order to get enough of each colour. And so, I feel like the answer here is DK-weight mini-skeins . ...
Read more

Joining Crochet Granny Squares – It’s Easier Than I Imagined!

Image
I recently learned how to continuously “join as you go” (JAYG) for crochet granny squares and I LOVE this technique. And so on today’s Taking Back Friday video , I want to share an update on my Jethro Cardigan project and how I joined the granny squares. As I shared in a previous vlog episode , I’ve been making crochet squares out of three different sets of our Superwash DK Party of Five mini-skein sets. I finished making the 36 granny squares needed, which no two are identical. However, after crocheting all of the squares, I was stuck on how to join them together. They simply sat finished in a pile for a couple of weeks. Luckily, Tanis provided resources with her pattern and one of them was for the “Join as You Go” tutorial. It was fantastic. I’m so proud and excited that I’m almost done. I love how it is turning out, and playing with colours has been the most fun part of this project. If you’re interested in making your own Jethro Cardigan, I want to give you some encouragemen...
Read more

Winterful Weave-Along: Weaving WIPs

Image
Part of the fun of any make-along is to connect with fellow makers — to share your progress, ask questions, and be inspired by others’ work. We’ve absolutely loved seeing all of your photos and the journey of all of the weave-along weavers both at our Discord and SOS Forum spaces. SweetGeorgia Team Member, Greta, has now started weaving her second Kaleidoscope Scarf ! Helping to add some additional needed yardage for the border colour with our SweetGeorgia Individual Mini-Skeins (in Bison), Greta is following her own weft order — adding in some yellow picks and writing the order on a sticky note so the pattern can be easily repeated. Greta’s @gretacornejomakes second Kaleidoscope Scarf in-progress There is more weaving project inspiration to be found at our SweetGeorgia Discord space, in the #winterful-weave-along channel. It’s wonderful to follow along as everyone works through the weaving steps together. Also a fabulous opportunity for community learning, as weavers share ...
Read more