Updated as of 11 February 2015, to reflect the latest wheels on the market and latest pricing. Choosing your first spinning wheel is somewhat like choosing your first car. There’s a level on which it doesn’t really matter exactly what it is, because it’s going to do the trick to get you started, and odds […]

Honestly, there are plenty of times — many of them in December — when I find myself thinking I clearly did better living closer to the equator. It’s partly the shorter daylight hours and the sad, oblique nature of what sunlight you seem to get. When you couple that with a frantic rush to finish […]

There are those teachers out there who are vastly more experienced and graceful than I am, and were able to blog from SOAR. I think Sara’s secret is that she does not sleep, and that this in fact is part of what gives her the opportunity to make all the rest of us look like […]

I just sent this out to the folks confirmed for my workshop at SOAR. A week from today, there we’ll be… and I figured I’d pass it along because some of the advice in it is probably decent advice for anybody that’s traveling to a class. Hi folks, The Spin-Off Autumn Retreat is right around […]

Omigod, it’s August. How did that happen? Once again, summer drawing towards a close finds me further and further behind on things I thought I’d do. Like, this year, blogging hardly at all, ev en with the whole early-rising thing going on. At least there have been some remarkable early mornings. So, here, have some […]

Allright, first things first. The coffee is done and I have some so it’s safe to try to blog. It’s been a busy few days. Beth and I were talking Tuesday about how I’d be able to ship her some new batts around the end of the week. I think what happened was that she […]

I’m doing the Hush-Hush Handspun Hootenanny swap. Here’s my questionnaire info: 1. How long have you been spinning? What skill level do you consider yourself? I’ve been spinning for over 30 years and consider myself advanced. 2. What kinds of yarn do you create (singles/2-ply/3-ply/art yarn)? Any type of yarn I want. Rarely novelties or […]

Allright, I’m going to do a few questions relating to my wheel collection, because it’s been a long week and that’s what I think I have the cycles to do. Ok, devil’s advocate here: Why do you have so many? Are certain wheels better for spinning certain kinds of yarns? And how do you justify […]

In that way that things sometimes go, a wheel followed me home yesterday… It’s an older Country Craftsman, a 24″ Saxony wheel, literally never used. It needs some cleaning up and minor tweaks, but should be a solid enough spinner once those are all squared away. Posting the picture on Ravelry, though, resulted in folks […]

There were a bunch of good, but unrelated to each other, questions asked last week when I started the Summer Q&A series with “spinning from the fold.” What’s more, the Q&A format worked out pretty well for handling the summertime blues! But then Monday snuck up on me with no topic planned. How could I […]