Hobbies
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I went through a brief audiophile stage after college. I did a lot of research. I bought beautiful tube amplifiers (you needed two for the type of system I was building). I didn't get to the preamp, the source, or the speakers. I sold the amplifiers. They were work of art.
This would have been my second stereo. I had one in college. Solid state.
My next one will be sold state. Life's too short.
I learned some important information about speakers in the intervening years.
This system will sound much better than my first one. This one will be produce a precision sound stage, not be about volume, and definitely not be about over-emphasis on bass frequencies.
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Hobbies. But first, I love the Moth Radio Hour on NPR. Don't catch it as often as I'd like, but thoroughly enjoy it when I do.
My hobbies fall into 2 categories: Fiber (especially wool) arts, and late nineteenth century mechanical homewares (sewing machine, music makers, etc.)
Two Saturdays ago, I took a day long workshop on great wheel spinning at the Newbury School of Weaving, 27 miles northwest of here, just across the VT border. Although I've made yarn at the great wheel before (learning from videos and books), taking the class was a real boost. It answered questions and filled in gaps. I want to take a week long weaving class there, but that will have to wait until Cielo is a less dependent on me.
I'm currently spending my evenings picking wool, a Wenslydale fleece I bought last year. Some is scoured and picked, ready for carding, some is not yet scoured, and some is scoured but not picked. I put something on YouTube and pick away. I will be spinning it on the great wheel. Left to right: picked, scoured and unpicked, raw (unscoured) in the plastic bag.
Other fiber related projects in the works are a hooked rug I'm completing, a wool applique quilt I made 2 years ago that needs quilting, some Shetland wool I'm spinning for a shawl.
At the moment, I'm rebuilding the bellows on the Roller Organ I bought last year. It's all on the dining room table!
The industrial revolution cheapened everything.
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I've been crocheting a lot lately.
This was a graduation gift for Muffin's Sister's firstborn. I'm now starting one for Muffin's brother's firstborn. I have three years to finish it, which should be doable, but the next three graduations are four, five, and six years from now, so I'll be crocheting graduation afghans for the foreseeable future. If Muffin reproduces, I'll be crocheting until the end of my days.
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Hobbies. But first, I love the Moth Radio Hour on NPR. Don't catch it as often as I'd like, but thoroughly enjoy it when I do.
My hobbies fall into 2 categories: Fiber (especially wool) arts, and late nineteenth century mechanical homewares (sewing machine, music makers, etc.)
Two Saturdays ago, I took a day long workshop on great wheel spinning at the Newbury School of Weaving, 27 miles northwest of here, just across the VT border. Although I've made yarn at the great wheel before (learning from videos and books), taking the class was a real boost. It answered questions and filled in gaps. I want to take a week long weaving class there, but that will have to wait until Cielo is a less dependent on me.
I'm currently spending my evenings picking wool, a Wenslydale fleece I bought last year. Some is scoured and picked, ready for carding, some is not yet scoured, and some is scoured but not picked. I put something on YouTube and pick away. I will be spinning it on the great wheel. Left to right: picked, scoured and unpicked, raw (unscoured) in the plastic bag.
Other fiber related projects in the works are a hooked rug I'm completing, a wool applique quilt I made 2 years ago that needs quilting, some Shetland wool I'm spinning for a shawl.
At the moment, I'm rebuilding the bellows on the Roller Organ I bought last year. It's all on the dining room table!
@Bernard I saw your blog post about your class, and it sounds like stepping back in time! So wonderful.
I am suddenly working a LOT (knitting), with new designs and editing and herding test knits. I got a wild hair and had to go follow all the things! They’re wrapping up now, and I hope to just knit a sweater that someone else designed and not think for a while…
When hobbies become work, it’s fun but not as much fun as it was before.
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I've been crocheting a lot lately.
This was a graduation gift for Muffin's Sister's firstborn. I'm now starting one for Muffin's brother's firstborn. I have three years to finish it, which should be doable, but the next three graduations are four, five, and six years from now, so I'll be crocheting graduation afghans for the foreseeable future. If Muffin reproduces, I'll be crocheting until the end of my days.
@Mary-Anna I love crocheted afghans. I crocheted quite a bit as a teenager. Made one huge granny square; just kept going around and around using up whatever tidbits of yarn I could find. (Lot's of acrylic in those days, from Woolworth. Ironic.)
Yours, above, is beautiful. It looks much appreciated.
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I've been crocheting a lot lately.
This was a graduation gift for Muffin's Sister's firstborn. I'm now starting one for Muffin's brother's firstborn. I have three years to finish it, which should be doable, but the next three graduations are four, five, and six years from now, so I'll be crocheting graduation afghans for the foreseeable future. If Muffin reproduces, I'll be crocheting until the end of my days.
@Mary-Anna beautiful!
I have an afghan my grandma made and one made by a great aunt, and my mother has a few more of her aunts.
I love them all!!
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Re audio, I “inherited” my brother-in-law’s stereo system when he went into assisted living. It’s an old quadraphonic system and the receiver is a total beast weighing about 40 pounds. I’ve no need for 4 channels so just use 2. It’s glitchy, probably because it needs cleaning, but I don’t know how to do that. And my hearing is so bad now that I can’t appreciate the quality that much anyway.
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I rejoined the audio/stereo universe with gusto in 2017, and it hasn't stopped. Back then I had 1 vinyl LP which was Mike Oldfield's Airborne. Now I have well over 500 LPs and about 30 Reel to Reel tapes and even more cassette tapes that I never tossed.
My system is more than I ever imagined it would be including a pair of 650 watt SimAudio 400M Solid State mono block amplifiers, a pair of Decware 6 watt Tube Mono blocks for when I am feeling like some tube goodness, a matching SimAudio Pre-Amp, a couple of Reel to Reel decks, a Marantz 3 head, 2 speed Cassette Deck a Roon Streamer and separate PS Audio DAC, a super crazy German Turntable and PS Audio phono pre-amp, and some crazy sexy Sonus Faber Il Cremonese, Italian speakers. It sounds so good, I will never want for something "better".
Ugh, we desperately need new window treatments. And don't mind the messy listening space.
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Mark, love it, a joyous photo revealing the essence of a true hobbyist, fabulous, slightly insane
I bet you have a spare 1m cable that cost more than all of my 150 juggling balls, and a wife that says the same things to you when you're searching through vinyl on the floor of a thrift store as mine does to me when I start throwing dog toys in a pet shop.
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I rejoined the audio/stereo universe with gusto in 2017, and it hasn't stopped. Back then I had 1 vinyl LP which was Mike Oldfield's Airborne. Now I have well over 500 LPs and about 30 Reel to Reel tapes and even more cassette tapes that I never tossed.
My system is more than I ever imagined it would be including a pair of 650 watt SimAudio 400M Solid State mono block amplifiers, a pair of Decware 6 watt Tube Mono blocks for when I am feeling like some tube goodness, a matching SimAudio Pre-Amp, a couple of Reel to Reel decks, a Marantz 3 head, 2 speed Cassette Deck a Roon Streamer and separate PS Audio DAC, a super crazy German Turntable and PS Audio phono pre-amp, and some crazy sexy Sonus Faber Il Cremonese, Italian speakers. It sounds so good, I will never want for something "better".
Ugh, we desperately need new window treatments. And don't mind the messy listening space.
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