Ice, Fiber, and Roller Organ

Happy New Year!

We had quite an ice storm last week. I awoke to find everything covered in 1/4" of ice, and the power was out. It came back on about four hours later and the internet came back on about an hour after that. Temperatures have been cold, remaining well below freezing (most nights in the single digits hovering around 0F) so the ice is still with us. It is very beautiful; the moon was almost full the other night when I walked out to the mailbox and the lunar luminescence caused the ice encrusted trees to glitter magically. But it took me a long time to remove the ice from the car the other day; I didn't get it all removed.

I skeined a bobbin's worth of orange yarn last week. One nice perk of using a wood stove is the convenience of having a yarn dryer handy at all times.

Drying after a bath

78 yards, triple ply

I have worked steadily on the roller organ I picked up last month. It came with a number of issues. The cabinet was mostly solid except for one side that had been snapped in half. The action was very dirty, the felts put on in a rough fashion. It tried to wheeze out a bit of a tune but a struggle, it was.

My goal was to get it functional again, and patched up enough to go providing entertainment for another hundred years.  A complete refinishing of the cabinet is not something I'm addressing at this time. I don't have a heated, well-ventilated workspace in which to undertake the job. It is something I would need to do outdoors, but wouldn't you know I'm am most motivated and inspired to undertake these projects in wintertime! Come spring, the yard and garden will be the focus. But I'm going to see about carving out some time to enhance the cabinet. In the meantime, it shows its age, as it should.

The date of manufacture was stamped in two locations within the cabinet: 1907.

Date of manufacture stampled on exhauster

In a nutshell: So far, I've cleaned the cabinet (more to go) and motor and keys. Took out the reed bed and rid it of accumulated dust and made sure each reed was functional. I've also glued broken bits together again.

Loose veneer on a lid segment

Using heavy books as weights on re-glued veneer

One side of the cabinet was snapped in half 

The motor and keys were encrusted with grime.
 

The roller mechanism 

The keys with oversized felts

Action removed and ready for cleaning

The keys were cleaned using a Dremel ...

... and ultrasonic cleaner

New felts and leather pads (which were missing)

The action temporarily back in situ

Gluing a broken bearing back together

Gluing the window frame back together

The exhauster valves had been covered with covers from a paper back book! They should be leather. Sadly, the valves between the bellows and exhausters were covered with some sort of lined paper, they also need to be leather. I write 'sadly', because replacing them means opening up the bellows which means re-building them. I have some bellows cloth that I purchased for the melodeon and was considering using it. But seeing how it's so expensive and this roller organ plays kind of ok even though the inside valve flaps are paper(!), I've decided to wait to update the bellows.

The exhauster valves were covered with paperback covers

 

The book covers that were used as flaps. Looks like a saucy little novel.

Looking through the outer exhauster valves, the lined paper covering the inner valves is visible. Ugh.

Here is a short little video of a test I ran this evening. It's a bit wheezy still, but mind you, this is with paper valves between the bellows and exhauster! When I get around to re-doing the bellows and replacing the paper with leather, I feel confident it will sound stronger.

Also a problem is the crank handle. It can be seen in the video that it was, at one time, welded back on. Unfortunately, the weld is crooked and contributes to the clicking noise, I think. Not sure what I will do about that.

The cabinet, as I wrote above, will not be refinished now. I will make it look ok, but further refinishing will be in order. I have cleaned up the lid pieces and they need to be re-attached.

I'm quite pleased with how this project has progressed. It's so cool, and so much fun!

A final note... you may wonder why the music seems to last so long considering the smallish diameter of the cobb. Well, very clever engineering! These organs were designed to rotate 3 complete times around. The pegs in the cobb, which create the music, are set in a spiral. The motor mechanism has a worm gear (visible on the left) that pushes the cobb slowly to the right as the motor turns, thereby getting a lot more mileage for each song. I think that's the most clever design!

Best watched on Youtube . . .

 

 

Happy Solstice!

I had a nice month-long break from logging, and not much fiber work took place either. It is going to be slow spinning for a bit, while I prioritize some preservation projects that have been waiting too long. There is a small amount of spinning to show, as sitting (or standing) with the spindle for even ten minutes is very therapeutic. This is another mystery wool, I've had it for years and cannot remember when or where I purchased it, or what it is!

3-ply, on-the-fly

As we enter another holiday season I am facing the fact that the antique pump organ that I wanted to rebuild remains in it's half finished state. The same situation has arisen with the antique melodeon. I had dreamed of getting them done for this year's holidays. And now there is another preservation project, an antique Chautauqua Roller Organ. A craigslist find from Wlliston, VT. I made the two hour drive last Tuesday to pick it up; the price was right--and reflected in it's state of disrepair. But all the pieces are there (and it came with 12 'cobbs') and it doesn't look like there will be any major obstacles to getting it playing well again.

 

A box of 12 'cobbs' for the roller organ

 

My next post will be all about the work I've already done on the roller organ (with pictures) and the tasks that remain.

Meanwhile, I've been up to my usual holiday preparations. I snuck a peek at the Christmas cake last week and the aroma is fantastic. Last evening I made cream fondant centers for chocolates and cut them into pieces this afternoon. I will dip them in chocolate tonight or tomorrow.

Fondant centers, wintergreen, maple, and orange

I also tried something new last night, a craft from long ago: Making small boxes from oranges (or lemon, grapefruit, etc.). I prepped the skins and molded them last night and they are now drying.

Orange peel boxes drying out.

I saw the process described and explained in this video and the one prior to it... How cool and fun!

 Deck the halls!! ....

 

A little bit slow

A quick catch up. The living room construction was far more disruptive than I imagined it would be. I'm still catching up. The skirting boards have been purchased and I've spent this week figuring out how to stain them, now that it cannot be done out-of-doors. I tried putting a space heater in the basement to get the temp to round 60F but it's way too insufficient. That has made me dream about getting another wood stove for the basement... ooh, the expense. There is another chimney with access in the basement, so it would be most doable. I'll keep my eyes open. I think the space is about 24' x 36', entirely open, and soon to be completely empty because it's too damp to keep anything down there. But for now I've decided to use the spare room/craft room, upstairs, which can easily be brought up to 60F with a small heater. That room is closed off during the winter to make heating my room and the main rooms easier. But I don't think it gets below 50 in there as a rule, nothing a space heater can't warm. Besides, I only need a few hours of ambient temps to get these boards stained.

I am doing a tiny bit of spinning, next post will have pics. And just a smidge of knitting, pics to come.

Second sock is in the works but has spent most of the past few weeks lounging on the center table in the living room.

My Christmas mushrooms are all painted and finished, so garlands can be made. Visuals in the next post.

I'm dying to open the tin containing the Christmas cake to have a whiff, but I'll wait. Won't be long now.

The soap I made in late summer has cured to being useable. I love it. Dare I say it's my new favorite recipe?

It's that time of year again... the wood stove is lit. Oh so cozy.

 11 p.m. I just went out to get some wood for the stove. The frosty air splashes the face, smelling salts pale. Deep breath in. The tall wheat-colored and brown grasses and skeletons of Goldenrod glisten, jeweled with frost. The stars twinkle. The cold clears the air. It's very quiet. Last night I heard a Barred Owl across the road when I went to fetch the mail after dark. I wonder if it's nearby this evening. Sometimes I think I should put a wood box in the house and fill it during the day so I don't have to go out at 11 pm for more wood. But I'd lose this beautiful experience. I probably will get one, but not let it stop me from going out to drink deeply of this world's beauty.

Knitting chaos

Chaos socks are what I'm knitting. The idea came to me via Etienne's channel on YouTube, Etienne . He's been knitting up a pair of socks by using up yarn leftovers in random stranded patterns.

Picking colors blindly from a box full of yarns--2 for each pattern, and picking the pattern by tossing a die.

I've got a box of yarn bits and bobs and I pick two for each 5-row band. I don't have a die to generate a random number so I'm using an online random number generator (which randomness is always iffy, but the site I'm using advertises itself as truly random--random.org. I'm dubious because of the first 10 numbers I drew, 5 of them are in the 40s! Hm.)

Random bits of left over yarns

 

I am selecting the fair isle patterns for my socks from a book in my library called, "Traditional Fair Isle Knitting" (c) 1981 by Sheila McGregor. The book is an encyclopedia of patterns. I'm sticking to the 3-row patterns with a solid line above and below, making a total of 5 rows per pattern.

Most of the yarns I'm choosing from are around DK weight, some a little heavier, some a little lighter. This first sock--experimental, to see if it fits--has 48 stitches cast on and I'm knitting in size 4 needles. I think it's looking pretty good so far, fit wise. Only time will tell.

 A fun knit.

 

On Top of the Game

I'm so on top of the game this year, I surprise myself!

Today, I made the Christmas cake and the filling for the tourtiere. The house smelled so good! The cake will get triple wrapped and put in a tin to age for a few months. The tourtiere filling is already in the freezer.

I made Marion's (from Marion's World YouTube channel) recipe again. It was a great success last year but this year I left it in the oven for an extra half hour to ensure a thorough baking. Can't wait to dig into it, alas, a few months away.

The tourtiere filling is my own take, based heavily on what I grew up with. Allspice is the predominate spice with plenty of black pepper. Here it is simmering down.

An update on the living room wall. The contractor finished his work but I waited a week before painting because the paint store was having a sale that started yesterday. 40% off, and I wanted to take advantage of it because at $93/gallon, that's quite a big savings. This is what it looked like when he left. Just today, I primed the walls. Tomorrow I'll start with the paint.

Due to the house being in such a state, what with wool and wheels moved all over, there hasn't been a lot accomplished on the fiber side of things. A bit of spindle spinning here and there, but that's about it.

Oh! I forgot to mention my new car. This is a stock photo, but it's the exact make and color of mine. A red Hyundai Elantra, 2025 model. I've decided to try leasing seeing how I don't travel as much as I used to.

 

The Vermont Sheep & Wool Festival

The Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival was this weekend. I left bright and early yesterday morning to get there by opening time, 10 am. The drive is about an hour and a quarter from my place. There were already many people queued up when I arrived at 9:30 am.

The half hour passed quickly in the idyllic setting of the Tunbridge fairgrounds, surrounded by the rolling Vermont hills with still some color in the leaves. (We peaked early this year which I imagine is do to the drought. We are still in an extreme drought situation.) In no time we were all passing through the gates in anticipation of all the wool goodies inside the grounds.

I had a short list of items I really wanted to find: A fleece, some wool fabric, maybe some roving, and a distaff. The first booth of importance to me was Green Mountain Hooked Rugs where a good selection of wool fabrics were on offer. Why do I want wool fabric? Because last month I purchased an unfinished, vintage, hooked rug on eBay for practically nothing. Reason for it being so inexpensive was that it had a few holes in the unhooked areas. But I know how to fix that. So I found all the colors I needed at the booth, in order to finish the rug. The yellow isn't quite the match I was hoping for, but Inktense colors can remedy that (I've already tested). This is the rug; I couldn't resist the colors and the charm of it:

The finished rug will be rectangular, 24" x 36". I have managed to find out quite a lot about the pattern, which tickles me. There's an inscription running around the canvas which reads, "An original design inspired by sister Sylvia's flower garden." Although a bit hard to read, I also made out "McGown" in the inscription. One of the several books on rug hooking in my library is titled "You Can Hook Rugs" by Pearl McGown, (c) 1951, and it has lots of pictures. Just on an off chance the design would appear in the book, I thumbed through all the pictures, and there it was, on page 52, a black and white photo! It's called "Flowerette" in the book. The caption reads, "Sister Sylvia used #346 Flowerette (24 x 36) for her first rug -- mainly because all of the flowers were picked from her garden -- and being one of those perfectionists her efforts were most gratifying!" How very cool!

The same booth was offering some hand hooked rugs for sale (some quite stratospherically pricey, as one would expect), but there was one vintage rug that I really liked, and being used, sported an affordable price. I do love these old rugs, and it came home with me.

This Wensleydale fleece was just what I was after. Not the breed specifically, but the size, crimp, and lock length. And the colors! This one will not be dyed. I can't wait to start processing it.

As for a roving, I found this hand dyed one irresistible. A mix of Merino wool and Tussah silk (Tussah comes from wild silk moths). Oh, so pretty. It should make a beautiful yarn.

A distaff was not to be found anywhere on the premises, that I could see. There is a strong likelihood I will attempt to make my own.

A successful trip! I was done shopping within an hour and by that time it was getting crowded, quite so. The weather may have accounted for the turn out, it was supposed to reach 80F! (Same today, tomorrow, and Tuesday as well.) So a visit to the animal shed, a bit of petting, and I was on my way home.

Part of the reason for leaving so early was due to the fact that my living room has been under construction all week and my time with Cielo (my hand raised Lovebird) was quite curtailed. I could tell Saturday evening that he was in need of quality time. So I came home to spend a fair amount of the day with him.

The living room... I had one wall that was covered in dark paneling cut down to wainscoting a few years ago, and I papered the top. Last week I had the same dark paneling removed from the opposite wall. The contractor should be finished by about Wednesday this week, and I will then paint the sheetrock. Here's what it looked like after he had removed the paneling and old insulation. The ceiling will be replaced next spring, hopefully.

A few final photos

 Taken in the garden.

Washed and blocked...

The Cormo (to my knowledge) is all spun up. 200.5 yards.