The Question: You’re working with industrially-produced Blue Faced Leicester (BFL) top, and you find that the yarn you’re producing makes a stiff, dense yarn. Is there any way to make it loftier? The Short Answer: Probably. Many spinners — some people would even say most, these days — default to a drafting method that tends […]

Well, not exactly, and actually, it may last at least through Wednesday. Things started off okay. It was actually kinda pleasant even, because there were thunderstorms overnight — thunderstorms! Which can’t happen when it’s freezing cold. So that meant, you know, the weather was on the upswing and all that. Sort of. Well, you know, […]

I was recently asked about Peruvian low whorl spindles and where to find them. I both love and hate this question because it’s full of simple answers… and not so simple ones. The easy answer is: you get ’em in the markets in Peru. Not the tourist markets, but the ones where regular people, generally […]

Stringtopia registration proceeds, and we’re very excited watching them roll in and finding out who’s joining us! It’s truly a thrill! We’re starting to really picture our quiet, historic downtown being taken over by spinners, and our attempts to cover all the bases and think of everything, well, I have to admit, right now they […]

So, what are you doing the weekend of April 29 to May 1, 2011? I know what I’m doing. It all started when Morgaine Wilder from Carolina Homespun stopped by my house last year on her way home from Maryland Sheep & Wool. We had a lovely visit and we found ourselves talking about all […]

Dear Ed, Sometimes the numbers just don’t seem to add up. Like thinking about how you’d have turned 66 today, and how in another 3 weeks, it’ll be 7 years since you died. Thinking about it today still makes me cry my ass off; not in the sobbing gut-punched way it used to, I guess, […]

So every year on Super Bowl Sunday, Morgaine at Carolina Homespun hosts a “Spin For Peace” event. If you’re in the area and not committed to watching football — or looking for a way to be not committed to watching football — it’s a really great event. As 2011 started, Morgaine asked me to make […]

SpinKnit for Windows SpinKnit for Mac I’ve just spent the morning with Interweave’s new eMag SpinKnit, due to be released on Friday, 12/3/2010. I’m a weird combination of reader in that I both love and hate digital content. I worked for 15 years in information technology, primarily dealing with electronic publishing, and then I left […]

We´ve made it to Aguas Calientes, which nowadays they call Machu Picchu Pueblo, apparently. In some ways it´s come a long way since I was first here in 1977, when there was nothing here except a dive bar with a loft over it where backpackers could throw a sleeping bag. The bar had a generator […]

So I still haven’t gotten everything back working how it should be, but I give up for now; there’s stuff I have to blog about, and so all the hassles with spam filtering and comment handling and templates… whatever, for now. Whatever. I’ll get to it when I can. When I was four years old, […]