Back Here, Right Now. A Reboot

 The sudden activity on the blog can be traced directly to a single event. 

My MIL passed on an antique spinning wheel in need of lots of love to work again. The history of the wheel is unknown to me. All I have are what I can learn by looking at it. I notice there are no actual nails in the construction, but rather wooden pegs.  The flyer is missing. The tension screw is worn way down. The drive wheel crank is connected to the treadle with a bootlace. There were very dark and worn spots everywhere needing oil. It's a classic Saxony shape, with a 22" diameter drive wheel. and NO MAKERS MARK. This was someone(s) workhorse. There are scribe lines and lots of dents where spinners used to put forks when plying yarn together. 

I have been handed a puzzle that I can't wait to solve. I have learned a lot about wheel construction in the last few weeks while I research hoping to find answers. Now I know about wheelwrights, local and far away. 

And all this time thinking about how to get the wheel restored reminded me of how good it felt to do yarn crafts - to knit, play with dyes, spin fiber - to make stuff. 

The research led me back to Ravelry, the social media site for yarn crafters. I have only logged in a few times in the last several years. This time, I noticed that a few people had actually used some of my old washcloth patterns from when I was the knitting editor for BellaOnline.com in the early teens. five years ago someone commented on Ravelry that the pattern links needed to be updated, as my old articles had been written over. 

Sorry, it took me so long to get the message. I few people have some of these patterns in their cues. By today's standards, the photos are terrible by today's standards. That means knitting new samples and taking new photos. It might be awhile still for that to happen. 

Some of the pattern writing conventions have also
changed. 

I posted the old patterns as they were written a decade ago. I updated the links. I also finally started a Cunning Hat for my husband, which I had purchased yarn for so long ago I don't remember when it was. 

As I look at my old writing I see things that need to be updated. Things that were clearly written under a deadline. Some old articles have just lost relevance. 

But, I can work on this at my own pace and enjoy it. I can fix it as I grow my skills and learn more about yarn crafts and writing about yarn crafts. 

This sounds fun, and isn't that what it's all about anyway? 

So, welcome, or welcome back.