As you've likely read on our home page, in a newsletter, or on social media, I'm shutting down Alpenglow. Here is more information about what to expect over the next few weeks, and what this means for the future support of our products.
General Product Support
There are a lot of legal and financial considerations that go into shutting down a business. I cannot guarantee any specific type of future support. Our email will be active for at least a year, it will get to me. I'll try to help troubleshoot over email, but it will be sporadic and on my personal time, and it is unlikely that I'll be able to supply any parts.
This is why we've added a lot of repair parts and kits to our website right now! We've always designed our tools to be user-repairable and have videos on YouTube that will remain up. If you have a SkeinTwister or a Swift I highly recommend you purchase a repair kit, as this will greatly prolong the life of your tool. More detailed information is below, scroll to the appropriate section. Kits will be available through March 8, after which we're shutting down product sales, and starting sales of misc supplies and other stuff that we need gone before we move out of our workshop space. The website itself and all information and links will be active for roughly another year at least.
Huge Website Sale
Almost everything on our website is on sale starting now. All sales are final starting now, no returns or refunds. The discounts will get progressively deeper over the next 3 weeks, here's how it will go:
General:
- SkeinTwisters are sold out.
- Soldering kits are already 50% off and will not be discounted further.
- Repair kits are not on sale.
- Items will be discounted automatically AFTER they are added to your cart! Prices shown on product pages are normal prices, before discounts.
Week 1, 02/14/26 - 02/20/26
- Swifts are 15% off. As of this post, we have the ability to build 1 custom swift, and we have 4 pre-made ready-to-ship swifts.
- Everything else is 25% off - Notions, Electronics, Glow Gauges, Glowies, etc
Week 2, 02/21/26 - 02/27/26
- Swifts are 25% off.
- Everything else is 35% off
Week 3, 02/28/26 - 03/08/26
- Swifts are 35% off.
- Everything else is 50% off
SkeinTwisters
If you have a SkeinTwister, we recommend picking up some spare parts to ensure you can repair it and keep it running for years and years to come. A direct link to parts is below, here's more info on them:
- Foot pedals are the most common thing that needs repair or replacement. Highly recommend getting a spare, or two if you still have an old black cable pedal. We have videos on repairing these on YouTube, but it does required soldering and the internal switch can be damaged if overheated.
- The motor will eventually wear out. We don't see a ton of motor replacements, but they are getting more common now that SkeinTwisters have been out for 8 years. The motor kits will now come with a couple of extra screws and a shaft coupler while supplies last. We also have a discounted noisy motor option - these are new motors that didn't make the cut for new SkeinTwisters, more info is in the listing.
- Knob assembly - we've had very few of these, but it's basically the last thing that can possibly wear out. Super easy to replace with this kit.
We have videos on repairing/replacing all of the above things on YouTube, you can go to our YouTube Channel or see the videos here on our website. Parts are available through March 8 or while supplies last
Swifts
The main thing that can break on a swift is a strut. We get 2-3 broken strut emails per month, not a ton considering that there are over 700 of them out there, but it can happen. The most common cause is that the tail of the yarn wasn't secure, gets wrapped around the shaft, the person winding doesn't notice (or an electric winder is being used unattended), and the struts compress and flex until they break. It's a big bummer, but it's totally fixable. To keep your swift up and spinning for years and years, we're putting together a repair kit for just $15. It includes:
- 2 pairs of pinned inner struts
- 1 pair of outer struts
- 3 inner strut pin sets
- 6 silicone strut ties
- extra hub screws
- a washer
- 3mm hex key
- the top finial with Alpenglow logo (while supplies last)
A video on how to replace broken struts is on our YouTube Channel. Here's a link to all our Swift videos.
As each swift has different color combos and there were some minor configuration changes over their production, you'll need to provide us with your swift's serial number. It can be found on the shaft, inside of the clamp. Just loosen the knob that holds the clamp onto the shaft, pull the shaft out, and there's a lightly engraved number on it.
Note that we will be cutting a lot of different colors and materials to make these kits, and will be batching orders and colors together. It might take us a couple of weeks to get to your color after you order. We are shutting down orders on March 8, so the final kits will ship 1-2 weeks after.
Supplies and Shop Stuff
In early March we'll start looking at everything in the shop that's not product inventory, and making plans to sell extra stuff. Not much of it is fiber-related, most of it is electronics parts and test equipment. We will have a lot of glitter acrylic material to sell. Some things will be small and easy to sell online and ship, some will be pick up in San Luis Obispo. If you're interested in being on that email list, join our newsletter (or click "manage preferences" in a newsletter you've already received) and add yourself to the “Shop Supplies Sale” category.
What's next for Carrie and Keeping in Touch
I don't even know. I will always love making things, engineering, working with electronics and designing products. My creative drive will never go away and the ideas will never stop coming. Whether or not I'll start another manufacturing business remains to be seen. I need a break, I need a period of time where I don't own a business. Maybe I'll go back to engineering contract work, maybe I'll look for a golden goose of a full-time tech job that doesn't involve defense, AI, or have a shitty tech bro culture, but I'm not holding my breath on that one. There's still several months of hard work left - selling what we can, moving out of the shop space, and winding down the business, and then I'm taking the summer off.
Keeping in touch! The instagram handles on our social media page won't go away, but they'll go back to being Carrie's personal accounts. Ditto with Bluesky and Mastodon. Email will remain active for a while after 04/30/26, but will not be checked daily (info@alpenglowindustries.com). I'm spooling up a Discord server if you want to stay up with whatever I'm personally doing next, or if you need a place to talk about putting LEDs or other electronics in your knitted or crocheted objects. Or if you need a place to talking about soldering or repairing electronics or whatever.
Thank you so much for your support and kind words over the years. It has truly been a privilege to get to make unique tools that make the lives of dyers and small predominantly woman-owned businesses better. I'm really proud of the work I've done and what I've put into the world with Alpenglow, and I hope our work has brought you delight.
-Carrie and Robyn, the Alpenglow Team