You spin me right, round baby right round

Last Saturday was a continuation of fiber madness. It was World Wide Spin in Public Day. I hung out with Brian, Kent, 2 of the guys I met at the Men's Fall Knitting retreat, and a bunch of other spinners down in Kent, WA (not to be confused with Kent the person). The outing was hosted by Renaissance Yarns which is located in Kent Station. Kent Station reminds me of a small downtown Walnut Creek, CA. There are several of these California-style outdoor shopping centers in the Seattle area. Admittedly I grew up in the NJ Mall Generation, spending many hours of my teenage years hanging out with friends in the store filled indoor shopping wings. I can almost smell the mix of new clothes and chain store restaurant aromas that was so common in those enclosed commerce meccas. The outdoor shopping centers are definitely a lot more appealing than their predecessors (strip or indoor).

Brian & Kay






Kent from Kent using a drop spindle

It amazed me to see so many different types of spinning wheels and drop spindles. The Turkish spindle, which caught my eye, uses a bottom whorl that enables the spinner to wind a neat ball of yarn as the yarn is produced. The finished ball slips off very easily ready for knitting or plying. As with other spindles they are sold in a variety of different beautiful woods. From what I can tell, the spindles spins what seems like forever. And because the yarn is wound neatly around the whorl it remains very balanced as more yarn is produced. Check out this great video on YouTube demonstrating how to spin on one (it doesn't hurt that the woman in the video has a very pleasant English accent).

My drop spindle spinning techniques still need some polishing. I tried using different fibers as well as another top whorl spindle graciously given to me by "wonderMike" (that's his Ravelry name). It definitely spins a bit longer than the Tilt-a-Whorl beauty I bought at the Men's Fall Knitting Retreat. But I still haven't gotten the hang of actually spinning the yarn while the spindle hangs by the yarn. The "park & draft" method is still my current spinning mode. It was fun to experiment with different fibers and colors.

My growing collection. The new one one is on the right (Schacht).

I definitely have a way to go with mastering the drop spindle. But there's fun in that challenge.

It takes some fiber, yarn, needles, spindles... and a few men

Wow, I know it's been quite some time since I've blogged. Life has just been too busy; or should I say my job consumed most of my free time. And with likes of Facebook and Twitter I found that posting shorter snippets of what's been happening a lot less time consuming. Ummm, I think I just lied. It's probably very likely that the time I spent on Facebook and Twitter added up to quite a big chunk of time.

Well anyway, what got me to finally head to Blogger and type in an entry? Knitting! Yes my somewhat dormant obsession is back and in a big way. This is not a complaint, at least from my perspective. I'm not quite sure how David feels though ;-)

I had been knitting on and off, here and there since we moved to Seattle. But the amount of projects were not coming off the needles as quickly as they had when I was in CA. So what did it take? Well Joe Hose, a very dear and old college friend sent me a link to a flyer posted on Flickr for a Men's Knitting Retreat during an IM Google chat. You read correctly; a knitting retreat for just men. And coincidentally it was going to be held a hop, skip and a jump away just south of Seattle in Federal Way, WA.

So after a little bit of should I or shouldn't I internally debating (mostly around the cost and the time away from David and Trixie), I contacted wonderMike and said sign me up.

A few months of pent up excitement paid off. The Fall Men's Knitting Retreat (MFKR - cute acronym right?) happened and EXCEEDED my expectations. Up until the retreat I would say that I was a solitary and self-taught knitter. I had never knitted with another man. In the seven-ish years that I've been knitting I think I might have met 2 or 3 male knitters but those were fleeting moments.

The retreat was held at Dumas Bay which was a former monastery. The accommodations were just fine for a dormitory. It brought back some strange college memories (don't even go there some of you). The grounds were absolutely beautiful. I can't believe that I didn't take any pictures. The meeting room had a breathtaking view of the Puget Sound.

Here are some pics of the gang (there were 28 total not including me).


Mike (aka wonderMike), organizer


Brian (co-organizer), James (all the way from New Zealand), & Kerry


Daniel, Harry & Barth


Jeff, Chuck, Brian, Joe (the guy who started the first Men's Knitting Retreat)


Ron & Franklin (Franklin recently published the very funny It Itches: A Stash of Knitting Cartoons)


Brian knitting 14... that's right 14 socks at one time on a single very long Addi Turbo Click needle


Jeff, Nigel, Michael, Andy, Brett, Paul, ? (can't tell from the back of his head), & Daniel

You all are probably wondering what the heck one does at a knitting retreat. Well the obvious is knit. But there was a lot more. wonderMike and Brian organized quite a fun-packed retreat of classes, field trips and speakers/guests.

I took a beginning class of drop spindle yarn spinning taught by the fabulous wonderMike. I bought this beautiful hand made spindle crafted by Ed Lingenfelter (Tilt-A-Whorl Spindles).


The yarn on the shaft I spun and plied


Top view


Underneath view

I also learned how to do some hip hems for him taught by the very entertaining and talented Stephen Houghton (aka hizKnits).

We went on a trip to Moonshadow Alpaca Ranch in Auburn, WA. Those animals are just too freaking cute.




Nancy, Mike & Deb (Deb & Nancy are the fabulous owners of Moonshadow Alpaca Ranch)

It won't surprise those who know me that my mind started going on overdrive. Mind, "Boy how I would love to own an Alpaca Farm." "Wouldn't it be fun to raise these cute animals, harvest their fleece, spin it up (you did just learn to spin didn't you), and knit up some warm fuzzy stuff...." I learned though that money is not made from selling the fleece. It actually is from selling the Alpaca to other farms or as pets.

So who knows?

We did a bunch of other fun stuff. The crew of us went to Skacel which is the exclusive distributor of the lovely Addi Turbo needles and scrumptious yarns from Europe. We were able to go shopping in the warehouse. It was like being let loose in a fiber candy store. I left with a several new Addi Clicks and 3 bags of yarn.


Kenny, Michael and Troy shopping in the warehouse

On the last evening we had a guest visit from Cat Bordhi, the sock Godess, who gave a very inspirational talk encouraging us to knit in public, teach other men & boys to knit, and publish books.

We did a ton of other stuff but this post is already too long.

I will NEVER forget the retreat and all the wonderful, talented and funny people I met (I wish I had pics over everyone) and new friends I made. I'm counting the days until next Fall Knitting Retreat.