In which Abby receives her birthday present from Chad, a vintage Autoknitter (Circular Sock Machine), and accomplishes nothing which is particularly productive as a result.

As published in Fiber Femmes, January 2007

Knitting is SLOW!

So far this decade… well, century… hrmmm, milennium at that! I’ve found the even number years to be rough, tough, and challenging, with the odd number years much less eventful. However, I don’t know that I expect 2007 to be uneventful or unchallenging, what with a fledgling business in play now and everything! I’ve got […]

Louet’s new unbelievably tiny portable powerhouse is also finally a flyer lead scotch tension wheel, robust enough to fit almost every need! Read the details in my real-world test report.

This year, I hadn’t planned on any knit, crochet, or woven Christmas stuff. And usually when I do make such plans, they’re for crochet items, which are significantly faster. But then, as it happened, I had a yarn that I wanted to swatch for photos, and so sometime in late October I decided I’d combine […]

The Basics of Spinning Wheel Drive Ratios Spinning wheels are pulley systems. Changing ratios is basically the same principle as changing gears on a bicycle, except instead of sprockets and chains, you’ve got pulleys and drive bands. Simply put, a ratio of 5:1 means that the drive wheel’s circumference is 5 times that of the […]

Leslie’s sweater yarn is now complete, and shipped off to her! I’m left with three partly-full bobbins of single-ply yarn, which I’ll finish up and keep for myself, and two batts that I expect I’ll spin very fine, again, for myself. By completion, about 45 hours total were spent on the yarn, from dyeing and […]

A few weeks back, I embarked on an exciting custom spinning project for a longtime friend, who wrote me to say she was ready to start knitting the sweater of her dreams, and did I have the right yarn for it by any chance? I wrote her back immediately telling her I insisted she let […]

One of the questions I hear often these days is “I have a spindle with no hook or notch to hold the yarn — how do I work this half-hitch thing I’ve heard about?” I grew up spinning this way, on Peruvian low whorl spindles which are as simple a spindle as you can get: […]