Another Great Wheel

On By CarynIn Craft

I had the opportunity to make friends with another walking wheel! I went to the Doss Heritage and Culture Center in Weatherford, Texas and met with the lovely people working there with the collections and events. They let me go down to the basement where there were two antique walking wheels, one with all the parts, albeit with some field-expedient repairs, and another missing the spindle and accelerator wheel.

Photo description: great wheel before I started
Photo description: mother-of-all with spindle and accelerator head

I took off the mother-of-all, which holds the maidens, accelerator head, and spindle, to get a good look at the condition. I’m fairly certain that this mother-of-all is not the original one that went with the wheel, or the wheel was painted at some point, but the colors don’t match. The top of one of the maidens has also been lost to time, replaced with a dowel and metal spike, which certainly does the job.

Photo description: small wood stake that goes into the mother-of-all to hold the braided rawhide straps in place

Where the last great wheel I worked with had waxed linen that held the spindle, this wheel had rawhide magic braids that were nearly as hard as the surrounding wood. I was surprised that the pegs holding the rawhide in place could still be pulled out.

After looking over the mother-of-all, I put it back on the wheel, upside down. Oops. It took me about an hour of tinkering and fussing before I figured it out. In that time, though, I gave her a new cotton drive band waxed with beeswax, waxed the accelerator band, aligned the wheel with the base, and adjusted the wheel spacing against the post. The wheel rubs against the post, so I wrapped the post with waxed cotton cord to protect it from abrasion.

Photo description: waxed cotton cord lashed around the base of the post where the wheel rubs against it
Photo description: great wheel mother-of-all and tension system set up and spinning, there is another great wheel base in the background, which has a wheel, but the hub hole has worn away and it needs refitting

I love the tensioning system on this wheel. The wood nut on the right in the picture loosens to allow the center post to rotate forward and backward, decreasing or increasing tension. I think I actually like this set up better than the double nut Great Wheel, although both are more reliable over time than a greenwood tension system that relies on the bend-ability of fresh wood.

I did put a corn husk quill over the spindle to make it easier to remove the cop of yarn. For a leader I pulled three strands from my cotton twine, and did a larks-head knot over the corn husk quill. I spun Texas grown cotton sliver for a while before time called me away.

Bold

On By CarynIn Wildlife

My squirrels are getting bold. I walked out to fill the corn holders and a momma squirrel stayed just on the other side of the tree while I loaded, then came to eat before I walked away. The photo below was taken with my phone with no zoom. She was about three feet away from me.

Photo description: squirrel picking kernels of corn off a cob hanging in a corn holder on a Post Oak tree

Knitting machine experiment

On By CarynIn Craft

I decided to see what would happen if I knit the full length of my “Incredible Sweater Machine”, and since I can’t seem to only change one thing, would it be lace-like if I left every third stitch unhooked?

Photo description: The incredible sweater machine clamped to a narrow table with a full width swatch of fabric knitted with every third stitch skipped

I was thinking that there were needles missing on my machine because there are blank slots at each end, but the blank places are parking for the knitting cartridge. The cartridge needs to be completely clear of the needles in order to be ready to knit the next row. The loops on the very end are a little squirrely as the fabric lengthens because they angle inward and it takes extra attention to make sure they don’t pop off. Other than that, knitting the full row of needles isn’t much different than making a smaller panel.

Skipping stitches is just a matter of placing a needle in a non-working position. The shuttle puts yarn over the area, but doesn’t pull it in and make a loop. However, when I removed the fabric from the machine, the knit stitches happily expanded into the space and just became loose, not lace-like at all.

Photo description: panel of knit fabric with skipped stitches, on the left the stitches have eased back together and the stripe dissapeared

I decided to put a rib in where I left a blank, which is what is recommended for making a rib stitch on the machine. It was definitely awkward using a crochet hook and linking the loops after the fabric was off the machine, but I can firmly say that I am no longer apprehensive about runs in my knitting!

Photo description: same fabric panel but with the spaces turned into perl stitches, the top and bottom edge now lay flat

The yarn I used was from the scrap bin and turned out to be self striping, which was a surprise as I knit. I rather like the bold horizontal rows of color with the vertical texture stripes of the rib, and there is the bonus that at least the top and bottom of the fabric doesn’t curl. It turns out the ribbing at the bottom of a sweater isn’t to give it an elastic band, but to keep the bottom from curling up. Hm.

Throwback Thursday: more rocks

On By CarynIn art, Craft

Here is a collection of painted rocks photographed in June 2018 from one of my eye periods.

Photo description: painted rocks: left to right, top to bottom: octopus eye, sunset tree, cat eye through keyhole, blue human eye, tree frog, lady bugs, brown human eye, dog eye, reptilian eye

I think this wraps up the week of “more”. I had a couple blog titles naturally start with the word more, and ran with it awhile. Tomorrow we’ll go back to the regularly scheduled title randomness.

More insects

On By CarynIn Insects

This has been an interesting week for insect spotting.

Photo description: Texas Ironclad beetle (Zopherus nodulosus ssp. haldemani)

This is the eighth Texas Ironclad Beetle I have found on our property and the first in four years. This is by far the best picture. This one was definitely alive (it is hard to tell with Ironclads sometimes), and I left it to cruise along outside the chicken coop.

Photo description: Twice-Struck Lady Beetle (Axion plagiatum)

I have seen pictures of a black lady beetle with two red dots, but have never seen one in person until this week. Very neat find.

Photo description: Rabid Wolf Spider (Rabidosa rabida)

This wolf spider was easily 3 inches from front toe to back toe and I found it in the garage after I disturbed its hiding place by picking up a bag and then it ran down my leg. (Yes I screamed, but I didn’t panic.) I tried to get a photo with a reference, but the spider said no.