Norsk Fjord Fiber

High Whorling: A spinner's guide to an old world skill, Hardbound ($14.95) by Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts is the first book to describe spinning on a high whorl spindle exclusively. As a beginning high whorl spinner, I found the book informative, answering questions I had wondered about and questions I had never dreamed of. It had never occurred to me that drafting for woolen and worsted yarn could be different. Priscilla's nomadic life has influenced her to pare her life down to the essentials, both the beautiful and the useful and this book is a good example of her philosophy: spare, easy and quick to read, yet with everything useful included, even the occasional entertaining and enlightening fact about Priscilla herself. She is the first fiber artist I've heard of who does not have a yarn stash.

Fanatrøyer (Fana Sweaters) Hardbound, 185 pages by Olga Marie Breivik, et al. is about the Norwegian striped sweater originally worn in the 1800s. Fana is a region where the sweaters are still made and this book is testimony to their beauty. The book is written in Norwegian with a section in English at the end telling a brief history of knitting and giving detailed instructions for two of the sweaters. For the rest of it, the photographs tell the history of knitting and of this short, buttoned, colorful sweater in particular. These sweaters are so timeless as to be ethnic knitting and high fashion simultaneously. We include a translation of the photo captions of all the wonderful illustrations and photography when you purchase the book from us.