I have found an exception to my rule of always taking yarn from the center of the commercial skein. The “I love this yarn” in cotton produces repeated yarn barf if drawn out from the center: clumps of tangled yarn that pop out of the skein like an angry Obscurus.
Photo description: white cotton yarn skein from the brand “I love this yarn”
For these skeins, I pull yarn from the outside. To keep the yarn from getting away as it flips around, I put it in a box.
Photo description: white skein of cotton yarn in a small cardboard box with the yarn coming off the outside of the skein.
I see why the free hanging yarn holders are popular, they are for the “take the yarn from the outside” crafters, which is a fine method for cotton yarn. There are many ways to do things, it is good to experiment to find what works for you or the particular material you are working with.
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 startedPhoto 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 itPhoto 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.
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.
The whip stitch is very useful for putting hems on finely knit items like t-shirts or soft pants. Because fine knits are difficult to unravel, you don’t need to fold over the edge twice, you can stitch over the cut edge, which also gives the hem a lower profile. If you are hemming a ribbed knit, lining up the ribs helps keep the fabric even and gives a nice gauge for stitch size!
Photo description: hemming fine ribbed knit pants with a hand-sewn whip stitch
I started at a seam, and hid the thread knot in the seam fold. Then I put the needle through the pearl side (indent) stripe on the inner layer, and just picked up a couple loops on the next rib of the outer layer. To keep the stitches at the right tension, after stitching a few I pulled open the ribbing to draw in the thread. This leaves the stitches loose so they won’t show and are less likely to snap when the fabric stretches. Pulling the stitches tight would result in a visible stitch line that would break the first time the fabric stretched.
Photo description: finished hem that is nearly invisible
The pocket on the back of the wheelchair can only hold a pamphlet, anything thicker pokes the rider in the back. So I made a separate organizer type for long zoo trips where we need spaces for water bottles. My youngest requested space fabric, so we selected a print-on-demand pattern from Spoonflower on cotton denim fabric. I made three pouches by sewing a sleeve so none of the white backing shows.
Photo description: denim fabric sewn right-sides together, turned inside out and the seam pressed with a wood seam roller to lay flat
I put three sleeves on the backing fabric, and sewed down the center to make six pouches. I then made loops for the top corners to go over the handles and straps for the bottom to attach to the wheelchair frame. All of this sandwiched between another rectangle of denim. My Singer model 66 treadle handled the denim up to six layers, but eight was a struggle (a little extra oomph with the handwheel sometimes works, but you risk a bent needle). When I turned the entire assembly right side out I had to move the edge stitches in so I wasn’t sewing through 12 layers of denim (this organizer is hefty!)
Photo description: finished organizer installed on the back of a Drive brand wheelchair
I’m pleased with the flat construction, it doesn’t interfere knees when pushing and it folds up with the chair well.
I’m also trying to track my time on projects. This one took me 2.5 hours of active time.
