Aaron knits...and spins, and weaves.

Whatcha doing this weekend?

Good morning and happy Saturday! Spring is in full swing and this weekend is going to be the perfect time to get out and about, support local farms, and add to your yarn and fiber stash with the annual Washington County Fiber Tour that takes place this weekend. It’s like a pub crawl but with sheep and alpaca (llamas, rabbits, etc) farms.

Happy Trans Day of Visibility AND Happy Easter!

Good morning and happy Sunday! It is also International Trans Day of Visibility as well as Easter Sunday. I’m going to speak a little about this before we move into the knitting content of this blog post.

The first International Trans Day of Visibility was held on March 31st in 2009 and has taken place on that day every year since. The same day. Every year. For fifteen years. One day to recognize the dignity and value of the lives of our Trans friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors. Which we should be doing every day. People who have always been there. Even if you don’t know it.

I spy with my eagle eye…

Last weekend I took a brief trip out to an antiques marketplace in Nassau to check something out that I saw in a picture in one of the market’s Facebook posts that was shared by one of my friends.

Can you spot it?

Saturday Morning Carding

Good morning and happy Saturday! I was a little busy on Friday night last week with some other projects so I did not have time to write Saturday’s blog post. I have also been sleeping until a more ‘normal for me’ hour in the mornings which I haven’t done in a long time so Saturday morning last week was a bit lazy, as was Sunday after the clock changes. Now it looks like spring is pretty much here and my weekends will soon be filled with outside work. For now though, there’s still plenty to do here inside.

Saturday morning spinning with my favorite fiber (I think)

Good morning and happy Saturday! There is just one more week before the spring clock changy thing and I cannot wait! I am ready for more daylight hours in the evening.

The single skein of yarn I just finished spinning and plying and the remains of the dyed fiber I started some time ago and then abandoned are both very different and both are great examples of the the types of fiber I favor when buying a whole fleece and when buying pretty dyed braids.

Saturday Morning Spinning – Ready to Ply

Good morning and happy Saturday! I held off on starting this ply job until today mostly because plying is something I like to as mush of as I can in a session for the sake of consistency. Splitting it up into 15-20 minute sessions each morning would have gotten it done and probably wouldn’t have been that bad but I would have to hope that I can get the same rhythm each time. Also, a strange thing happened this week and I slept until my alarm went off every day!

Saturday Morning Spinning Resurrected

Good morning and happy Saturday!

It’s been a while, huh? I’ve neglected this blog for too long and I do apologize. I figured that I’m still paying for this space so I really ought to utilize it, and that I should also work spinning time back into my daily(ish) routine without taking time away from my musical pursuits. Although I could do some of that in the early morning hours (Michael can sleep through anything) I still prefer to engage in my noisier endeavors in the afternoon and evening hours.

Back in September I washed and carded the white portion of the Jacob fleece that came home with me from the Northeast Fall Men’s Knitting Retreat. The remaining natural brown/black part of the fleece is safely stored in a plastic bag inside a plastic bin in the basement, along with at least three other fleeces in their own respective bags/bins.

The small amount of white wool from the fleece will be returned to the nice man I bought the fleece from in the form of yarn. Some of it possibly dyed. I’m not sure yet. That depends on the yardage once it’s all spun and plied.

Jeb, the new boy who is a year and a half old now, has never really seen me use my spining wheel since he’s been with us. He was very curious and he got his nose too close to some moving parts just once. He was absolutely not harmed in any way but you’d never know it from his reaction. He remains curious, but from a safe distance.

I’m off to spin now. There is one batt left of the four that I started with. Once I wind off the two Kromski bobbins onto a number of storage bobbins I will start playing. That may be next Saturday’s project.

Until then, have a great weekend and a great week!

September Sanity Break

Good morning and happy Saturday! I know I said in my last post that I’d have more the following week. It’s still technically the following week, right?

A few weeks after starting the Ice Cream Social Shawl I started another shawl project for a train ride into the city. Ice Cream Social was already in a time out after I had finished all the first six lace sections. I frogged the whole thing after completing the second lace section because something went wrong even though I had the right stitch count. It’s been a while since I’ve knit lace, so I figured I just needed to get into the groove and I eventually did, but I most certainly did not want to do it on the train.

Social Engagement

Good morning and happy Sunday! Also happy 2023! It’s been a while, right? At least it hasn’t been as long as between my last post from 2021 and 2022, and you’ll hear more from me in 2023, I promise.

2022 wasn’t an entirely bad year, but there were a lot of very challenging and sad events that overshadow most of the good stuff. We lost Flash, our oldest Italian greyhound, in mid-March to heart disease. We had COVID at the beginning of April, and long COVID issues most of the rest of the year. The spring men’s knitting retreat turned into a COVID event for almost half of our attendees but was still pretty much a success despite that, for most who attended.

Surviving the worst of summer – 2022 Edition

Good morning and happy Saturday! Yes, I know it has been a while since my last blog entry and there are very good reasons for that.

Telecommuting might be biggest reason. For 2020 and most of 2021, my craft room doubled as my office. At the end of each workday it would turn back into my craft room, but since I had already spent most of my day in that space with my work laptop open in front of me, I did little else in there. Once it was determined and communicated to us that telecommuting, even on a partial basis, was going to be permanent going forward, I decided it was time to make a permanent work space that was NOT part of my craft space, and I took over the guest room to do it. The guest room also houses our game collection, movie collection, and Michael’s toy collection, and replacing the bed with a desk has made this room feel and function really nicely.