aaronknits

Carding Deja Vu

Good morning and happy Saturday! Have you heard the “it’s so cold I saw a politician with his hands in his own pockets” joke as much as I have the last few days? Much different than the non-winter we had in 2012. I don’t often say I’m looking forward to Monday and I don’t think many other people do either, but Monday’s temperatures sure look nice, and Tuesday’s look even better!

Last weekend I began carding up some pink targhee to homogenize the color. It came out beautifully. The gallery below shows the batts after the first and second pass through the carder and the final result. Continue reading “Carding Deja Vu”

This morning’s carding project

Good morning and happy Saturday! I am doing a little bit of carding this morning with this mostly pink Targhee fiber. I will have more to write about it next weeekend.

Until then, enjoy this post from 2014 about another carding project. It has been sitting in my drafts folder for far too long, as have many other posts from my previous blog.

I am going to make an effort over the next few weeks to publish as many of those old posts as possible and if I can, tie that republished post into a new post, just like I’m doing now.

Later this afternoon I am heading to the home of a friend and fellow chorus member to spend the rest of the weekend with his English Sheep dogs. I got to meet them last weekend and they approved of me, so the next couple of days should be fun.

Have a great weekend!

Are you ready?

Good morning and happy Saturday! The first major snowstorm of the winter is upon us, but somehow for all the jokes made about people stocking up on food and supplies, I have never really seen that actually happen. Sure, the grocery stores may be a little busier than normal as people plan to not go out for a couple of days, but weeks? That is a bit extreme.

I do have a couple of dog sweaters to start knitting and as much as I despise acrylic, these need to be machine washable. If I can find a superwash wool that I like I might get it, but these sweaters usually end up being acrylic. Continue reading “Are you ready?”

MSKR Registration opens this Saturday!

That’s right, registration for the Men’s Spring Knitting Retreat opens this Saturday morning, January 5th, at 10:00 AM.

An email will be sent out to everyone who has signed up on our mailing list notifying them that registration is about to open, and the registration page will go live on the Scheduled Events page on the Men’s Knitting Retreat website.

This year’s retreat takes place from Thursday, May 16th through Sunday, May 19th at Easton Mountain .

If you are not currently on the mailing list you can sign up here.

That’s it for this morning. I hope you all had safe and happy holidays!

So this is Christmas

Good morning and Merry Christmas! Christmas is and the new year is right around the corner. 2018 has been a whirlwind of a year full of fun, excitement, new friends, and new adventures, but also not without its share of challenges, heartbreak, and tragedy. I am ready for 2019 and one of my goals for the coming year is to blog more. Continue reading “So this is Christmas”

The Story of the Supported Spinning Yoke

Good morning and happy Sunday! Spinning with a supported spindle is something that I still consider myself a novice at. Sure, I have been practicing with various Russian and Tibetan style spindles for a few years now, but I still do not feel like I have developed very much proficiency with them. A huge part of that struggle is using my left hand to hold my fiber and draft from the fiber supply. It is not the struggle it used to be, and it is far easier than using my left hand to hold and flick the spindle to send it spinning.

Another struggle has been finding a comfortable position to spin, and a big part of that is where the bowl that the tip of the spindle rests in is placed. Where I place that bowl is dependent on the length of the spindle because the length of the spindle affects the position of my arm and hand that holds it. A very long spindle like my Willette Russian would require me to hold my arm up higher than is comfortable and it doesn’t take long before before I start to feel that in my shoulder. To get a more comfortable and relaxed position for my arm and shoulder, the surface that I place the bowl on has to be much lower than it it needs to be for any of my shorter spindles. For my little ebony rocket by Jim Johnson, I need a surface that sits up higher. Continue reading “The Story of the Supported Spinning Yoke”

Rhinebeck 2018

Good morning and happy Saturday! Last weekend fiber artists from all over converged on one tiny little upstate town for the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival, and it has a history of being quite the mob scene. This year was no exception. Each year it seems like more and more festival goers race each other to queue up at vendor booths (after standing in queues at the gate just to get in) to get the same stuff they can most likely get from the same vendor online at the same price, and without so much extra hassle. Yes, some vendors at Rhinebeck have special prices on some products for that show, or have some products that might be in limited supply. What is it about those details that turns an ordinarily sedate knitter into a rabid fiber fiend? I have never wanted yarn or fiber so badly that I would subject myself to the kind of craziness that seems to be getting worse every year. Continue reading “Rhinebeck 2018”