{June 22, 2008}   the snail

when i took the spinning class i didn’t expect to enjoy spinning. i was just taking it to learn more about fiber and because it was a free class. but, alas, i did. whatcha gonna do?

but wheels are expensive.

while perusing craigslist one morning i noticed an ad for an ashford traditional wheel being sold for $40. it was in pretty rough shape, needed some parts replaced and the wheel put back together and balanced. but the seller was willing to part with it for only $25, so we took a chance on it.

a few parts were purchased, tom did some deconstructing, gluing and reconstructing:
ashford_apart.JPG

and got it all fixed up:
ashford_fixed.JPG

it seems to work just fine:
ashford_first_single.JPG

the person selling the wheel bought it from the fiber art center, which, sadly, recently closed, and we’ve been able to determine that it was manufactured around 1976 (a bicentennial baby - just like us!)

we call it snail shell:
ashford_snail.JPG



{June 18, 2008}   uh oh, new craft

i was able to take a class last weekend through the yarn store - introduction to spinning:
spinning_class1.JPG
we rented a wheel and got a basketful of fiber-y goodies.

this was my first attempt at a single ply:
first_single_oatmeal.JPG

it started as this:
roving_oatmeal.JPG

and became this:
yarn_oatmeal.JPG
ick. not so good.

attempt number two started as this:
pencil_roving_multi.JPG

became this:
multi_single.JPG

and ended up as this:
yarn_multi.JPG
a little better. (it’s got a little thick ‘n thin action going on, but so does debbie bliss soho)

on the second day of the class, i turned a big pile of brown fluff (i guess i didn’t take a photo of the roving) into this:
brown_single1.JPG

brown_singles2.JPG

i then plied the two singles together to get this:
brown_yarn_skein1.JPG

brown_yarn_skein2.JPG
much better!

and what’s that skein hanging on? i’ll show you tomorrow…



{June 17, 2008}   a tjtk update

as of monday morning, jaz was still knitting! how do i know? well, jaz is the fabulous sidekick on, and producer of, the bill dwight show (in addition to being on-air and music director at wrsi.) and on monday morning, the first two and a half minutes of the show went like this:

that’s right, bill dwight considers us a “knitting cult.” nice.

oh, and what’s that you say? you would love to own one of those t-shirts bill and jaz discussed? you’re in luck! just click right here!



{June 15, 2008}   tjtk 2008

last night was “teach jaz to knit” night! so we had a little shindig at the compound.
after an amazing meal, the boys went to traci’s to play poker and the knitters settled into katy’s living room:
katy_tjtk.JPG

there were snacks, there were drinks, there was yarn, there was new-ish knitter progress:
molly_knitting.jpg
(we sucked molly in a few weeks ago…she made such great progress last night!)

and there were dance moves. zombie dance moves:
zombie_hands.JPG

we have plansbig plans:
video_thriller_crop.JPG

most importantly, the night’s goal was achieved:
jaz_with_knitting.JPG
jaz learned to knit! hooray!

oh, and tom won one of the rounds of poker, so we blew his winnings on breakfast this morning at the green bean:
poker_money_breakfast.JPG



{June 15, 2008}   mftsa

abby loved rocking out to the smooth stylings of memories from the space age tonight. (thanks to the live mp3 stream)

abby_mftsa.JPG



{June 13, 2008}   listen in

this is a big week for our friends!

i just found out that our friend jon’s band, memories from the space age, (myspace page here) is going to be on third rail radio, this sunday, 6-9pm.

img_0560.jpg

listen in on 88.1fm if you are in the college park, maryland area. if not, you can listen to the mp3 stream instead.

yay!



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