THE WEAVING, SPINNING AND DYEING BOOK

Rachel Brown's elegant, comprehensive treasury of weaving information is a vital resource, a bonanza for beginning and experienced weavers alike. Expectable contents include definitions of terms and step-by-step descriptions of techniques, directions for a large number of projects (simple belts to tapestries), and measured evaluations of a wide variety of looms--both readily available and hard-to-find foreign models. Unexpected contents include unpretentious rule-of-thumb advice (""Steer away from novelty yarns, synthetics, and garish colors""), tips on raising your own sheep, and the kind of incidentals that attest to the broad reach of her research. For example, the section on dyeing mentions in passing that Harris tweed colors come from lichens which need no mordant, that indigo and aniline have the same etymological root, and that safflower was, most probably, the dye used for the tape binding legal documents--i.e., red tape. Two insets of full-color photographs present striking finished pieces and arrays of newly-dyed yarns. All this plus 40 pages of suppliers: manufacturing companies, retail outlets, private sources of hand-spun or dyed yarns, with addresses ranging from Maine to California, from Scotland to New Zealand. Prime.