I finished the 1st bobbin of Shetland a little early, seeing how I may need to make adjustments to my technique for this spin.
118 yards, 3-ply (click to enlarge)
Plying x3 does a lot for evening the spin. I realized half way through plying that it would need to be over-plied to get the desired yarn. That's fine. The singles spin is just about right, in my opinion: somewhat low twist. The result is pretty much the dream.
I was expecting to use steam to relax the over-plied bit, but it wasn't necessary. Finishing the yarn in a hot bath with no-rinse soap was all it needed. It did dry it under tension, though: a hammer provided the weight and tension when the end of the skein was looped around it for the duration of drying.
So, recapping: the only big change, going forward, is to over-ply it. I will also continue to work on singles consistency, something that tends to happen anyway in any project involving a lot of spinning.
I have begun to spin the Shetland fleece that I scoured and dyed late last summer. As you may recall, I dyed it three different colors, hoping to produce a heathered yarn.
Shetland divided and dyed
The bulk of the fleece was dyed Chestnut, and although in the picture there appears to be blue and red, it is actually teal/green and red.
I made a number of spun samples and the time has come to simply stop dilly-dallying and dive right in, come what may. I was not entirely happy with any of the samples, but they came close. So now I'm spinning a whole bobbin full of singles to see what the journey is like, and when the plying begins (3-ply, Navajo style) I'll discover what worked well and what didn't. The second and subsequent skeins should see a bit of improvement over the first. This first skein may become a stand-by just in case I run short on the project.
I'm spinning from the drum carded batts. It's enjoyable to be at the wheel again. The Kromski 'Mazaurka' castle wheel is out for this one, and I am using the lowest ratio available. Gotta say, I'm pleased with the way it's going.
Fresh off the drum carder
First bobbin of singles in the works
I am so excited! I have booked a class at the Newbury School of Weaving with Justin Quizzero. I have been wanting to learn from him for a few years, ever since I saw him spinning in this video:
Although I have done spinning on my great wheel, I feel that some proper in-person instruction will go a long way towards imparting some confidence. So, a day-long class at the end of May awaits. Can't wait!
Work on the Roller Organ has ended for now. When the weather warms up, I may do some cabinet touch ups. And I hope to rebuild the bellows in the spring as well. Restoration of the Medoleon has begun in earnest now.
Lid open, keys removed
The exhausters need rebuilding and that is what I'm starting on. But there will be a slight pause on that front while I order some goat skin and leather.
Exhauster corner showing goat skin gusset
Exhauster skin and skeletal boards deconstructed
I'm keeping all the old pieces in order to use them as templates wherever possible. While I wait for supplies, I'm moving on to the reed bed. These reeds were extremely difficult to remove as they don't have a groove for a reed puller to grab onto. I had to use pliers and it was a bit of a struggle in a handful of instances.
The reeds pulled from their chambers
I will put the reeds in the ultra-sonic cleaner and make sure they all sing OK before putting them back.
The soundboard needs a bit of TLC. The previous restorers (in 1978, it says so inside the cabinet) repaired some cracks and I think they need a bit of reinforcement with glue. The whole board needs cleaning and sanding to remove old glue and remnants of velvet where the keys protrude from their cells.
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!
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 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.
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.
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.
