Tag: art

Tour de Fleece

July 12th, 2026

Karin is spinning Cormo wool on her wheel. Cormo wool is an excellent wool to spin into yarn. I only know this because my wife told me so. The fiber apparently comes from Tasmania, and the sheep that have been bred to produce it are rather rare. Karin knows nearly everything there is to know about spinning all varieties of fiber. I know next to nothing about the subject, even after we have been married for almost 42 years. The fiber arts are Karin’s domain. She is an expert with regards to spinning, weaving, knitting, crocheting, and dyeing fiber. She is a fiber goddess with an artist’s intuition, creativity, and passion. I encourage her in her efforts or at least stay out of her way.

Karin is currently participating in the Tour de Fleece. The Tour de Fleece is an online group event for hand spinners across the world. Karin has hooked up with a number of spinners who hang out at the Fox River Fiber Shop in Big Bend, Wisconsin. The annual event is run concurrently with the Tour de Fleece (hence the name of the event). The spinners ply their trade on the same days as the cyclists are spinning their bike wheels in France. The goal for the spinners to complete a project or maybe use up their stash of fiber (nobody ever actually exhausts their stash). It is also a chance for spinners to gather and compare notes. Spinners are basically members of a rather exclusive sisterhood, although I have heard rumors that there are male spinners.

Spinning is nothing new for my wife. She was spinning fiber before I ever met her. I have a story about that.

I met Karin when I was stationed in West Germany with the U.S. Army back in the early 1980’s. We dated for several months, and then I got up the nerve to propose to her. She said yes when I asked her to marry me, and then I suggested that we go to a jeweler’s shop to buy her an engagement ring. Karin didn’t want to do that. German women, at least at that time, did not get engagement rings. I was at a loss for ideas. I thought I definitely needed to get her something and I told her so. Karin thought for a while and then she told me,

“I want a spinning wheel.”

That’s what she got. We bought an Ashford traditional wheel. She has used it for decades. Karin has found spinning to be a meditative practice (very Gandhi-like). Recently, she upgraded to a SpinOlution Echo model. It is a more complicated machine with two treadles, one for each foot. She loves it.

It’s all about circles. Bicycle wheels. Spinning wheels. Engagement rings.

Our grandson, Asher, helping his Oma with her spinning wheel in the Tour de Fleece

Even Peanuts might have an Expiration Date

May 19th, 2026

My five-year-old grandson, Asher, loves Peanuts. I am referring to the classic comic strip from Charles M. Schultz, not the snack food, although Asher does like to eat actual peanuts now and then. Asher asks me every day to read to him about Snoopy. He also likes Peppermint Patty and her sidekick, Marcie. I don’t think that Asher gets all the jokes, and honestly, I don’t either.

I grew up with Peanuts ages ago. The comic strip ran for fifty years (1950 to 2000). The Charlie Brown books I read in the 1960’s were different than what I am reading now to Asher. The books I bought for him contain comics from the 80’s and 90’s. The early cartoons from Schultz had a sort of wild imagination and incurable curiosity that is common for little kids. The comics from decades later still have some of that innocence, but it often feels more like the characters in the comic are adults masquerading as children.

It kind of reminds me of the evolution of Calvin and Hobbes. Early on, Bill Watterson wrote stories that were authentically childlike. The tales were silly and madcap, but also true to life for a small child. Watterson remembered what it was like to be a little boy, and his main character, Calvin, showed that. Eventually, Calvin became much more mature and the magic was gone. The difference between Schultz and Watterson is that Watterson knew when to quit.

I am not saying that Schultz’s later comics were bad. He could still be hilarious and often thoughtful. However, some of the comics are definitely for adults. He wrote about Snoopy being a lawyer. How is that relevant to a five-year-old? How do I explain those stories to Asher? A lot of the comic strips are about golf. I have never played golf, so I don’t understand the jokes. If I don’t get them, how can Asher hope to relate?

Even in the old days, Schultz had his cartoon kids, especially Linus, spouting Bible verses in the comic strips. I did not get the jokes back in my childhood and Asher certainly does not get them now. Back in my youth, adults often had some level of biblical literacy, so the big people might laugh at those comics. Now, most of the biblical references are obscure to the general population. Maybe, Bible humor was part of Schultz’s culture, but it’s not anymore.

There are also issues with technology in the drawings. Some of the comics have pay phones in them. Asher has no clue what they are. The televisions look like huge pieces of furniture. Nowhere are there computers or cell phones. These are images of a time that is foreign to my grandson.

There are differences of social etiquette between the Schultz’s times and the present day. The kids in Peanuts always call an adult “sir” or “ma’am”. Who does that now? Unless you live in the Deep South or are in the military, nobody uses those terms. Maybe we should, but we don’t anymore. Asher calls his kindergarten teacher “Miss Sara”, but he would never call her “ma’am”.

Apparently, none of this really matters for Asher. He just loves to hear about the adventures of Snoopy and the gang. In that sense, Peanuts is timeless.