Whether they come from plants such as flax and cotton, or from animals such as sheep and llamas, natural fibers are at the heart of a sustainable spinning practice. Discover new ways to connect with the natural world in this issue and find fresh ideas for putting your handspun yarn to use. Learn from experiments in natural dyeing, twined knitting, and dehairing llama fiber to inspire your next spin.

You’ll also:

• Get Andrea Mowry’s best pointers for starting your supported spindle spinning journey.
• Hone your spinning skills with Kate Larson’s expert advice on park and draft.
• Find patterns for classic and innovative knitted accessories.
• Spin and weave a linen bread bag inspired by antique grain bags.
• Discover what happened to the Coast Salish Wooly Dog with an excerpt from The Teachings of Mutton.

With the Winter 2026 issue, you’ll find new ways to add the magic of natural fiber into your spinning practice. Then, put your handspun to use with four new projects and plenty of inspiration to create your own natural fiber masterpiece.

Articles

• Park and Draft: A Beginning Spindler’s Best Friend by Kate Larson
• The Grain Bag by Tom Knisely
• Small-Space Natural-Dye Experiments by Andrea Deck
• Knitting Nature and Technology Together: Plant-Dyed Tops, Knitted Afghans, and Digital Mosaics by Brian McCarthy
• An Interview with Andrea Mowry
• Bringing Nature into View: An Endangered Species Challenge for Spinners and Weavers by Dr. Annamarie Hatcher
• Twist in Twining: How to Spin for Two-End Knitting by Joan Goldstein
• The Teachings of Mutton by Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa
• Should You Dehair Llama Fiber? by Nancy Wilson
• Rug Hooking with Handspun Yarn by Betsy Alspach

Projects

• Farmer’s Doubleweave Bread Bag by Tom Knisely
• Growth Pattern Shawl by Jennifer Miller Comstock
• The Nova Scotia Tam: Spinning a Story by Barbara Kelly-Landry
• Versatile Twined Headband by Joan Goldstein