Too many hats

Where has summer gone? And what have I been doing?

I have had too many hats, and only one head, that's what.

We are trying to organize a fibre-optic net locally (this is what living in the boondocks means - having to "fix" whatever we want ourselves... sometimes it is ok, sometimes less so);
we (a slightly different "we") are trying to organize a small museum for glass, not exactly technology, but showing old-ish machines, such as a manual press, a pantograph and... (read more here, only in Swedish);
I have been working on a couple of web sites - and I have had big problems with my web access (up/downloads of files bigger than a couple of k tended to die).

I have also washed my old kilim rug. To do this I had to invent a drying rack, as this (like all rugs) get very heavy when wet. My contraption may not work for wider rugs, but here it is, anyway:

take two ladders and some string, tie them together along the long edges (short strings on top, longer at the bottom), add one or more pieces of gutter upside down:

Next will be a stint of sewing, and, perhaps, more blogging.

Super pi day

The drawer is scoured, now drying (and airing) in the garage.
Still lots of stinky heddles to sort/clean, but the loom is now threaded.

As I decided, based on this sample , I should sley 3/dent. (I also modified the warp some - warped with 4 ends: one bleached 16/2, two bleached thinner, probably 22/2 and, to give a somewhat warmer hue, one unbleached 16/2.)

Sleying 3/dent is something I always find difficult, unless it is a 3-end compatible threading. As the threading is a kind of decreasing point, adding 2 ends to each point, this turned out to be...difficult.

Sleying a fan reed is difficult to begin with, and this is by far the widest "fan" warp I have tried, so I thought up a trick: let the end of each sleying unit hang at the wide end, to make it easier to find the next dent:

After tying on... it turned out I had several errors, all of them where the narrow dents face the shafts - I guess my trick wasn't good enough.

Then the next problem arose - I have lost my favourite texsolv treadle cord hook, so I had to unvent some kind of substitute. After some not-quite-working ideas, this is now my new tool:

The reason for the different legs of this "tool" is that it gets easier to separate the fishing-line strands if they are different lengths from the knot, which is needed to make the loop go through the holes in the lamm.


Coda: as it is a super-pi day, and I haven't found any connexion to pi (but as the real pi-nerds say: *everything* can be found in pi), instead here is a picture of a blanket I saw today:

(When I brought out pen-and-paper to analyse it, my company suggested I ought to be able to do that from the photo. I should have known better, but... no matter how I fiddle with contrast, sharpening etc, I just can't make it out. Suggestions welcome!)

Also a piece of Very Happy News: today the newest incarnation of our local glassworks started the "pre-melting" needed to be done to a new ladle - pics here.

Rats!

I needed some more heddles on the loom, so I went to the heddle drawer.
This is what I found:

(Probably it was mice rather than rats, but... And it smelled!)

Well. No heddles, no threading. No threading, no weaving. And I don't have to do them all, not immediately, anyway.

Some hours (and a trip in the washing machine) later:

But I guess I know what to do in spare moments for some time to come... at least on sunny days, so I can sit outside!

A small thing that made me glad

On the Tuesday, I was ready to warp up the AVL. Getting near the front, I heard this odd, almost crackling sound. Hmm - or did I? Perhaps I was just imagining. But...

It turned out that it was the sound of a burned-out 'puter monitor. The computer that I use to drive the loom is itself Very Old (might actually be from '96), but I have got at lest one new monitor since then.

Well, no problem, really: I had one in reserve.
Except it did not like the computer: "no signal".

Oh well, there is another monitor upstairs - and I don't have any real use for the 'puter it is attached to, so I can try that. Hmm: "no signal".

Time to come up with a Plan B. (The aforementioned upstairs machine doesn't work very well, so that was out.) But wait: I have this new* snazzy laptop! The only thing needed was a serial-to-USB converter; should be a piece of cake.

No, the nearby electronic-things shop did not have one.
The next-to-nearest one did not have one. And it was nearly evening, too.

BUT: I was going to Kristianstad on the Wednesday - maybe there would be another shop there? Google told me Yes.

So, on the Wednesday morning I went to the shop in Kristianstad: can I have a serial-to-USB converter, please? Sure, they said, but they do not work with Win8. But if you want to try... you can always return it in 30 days.

So I took a chance.

Here it is, AND it works!

That is, I have tried a couple of treadlings (no warp on loom), so at the moment I only assume it works.

Should have started warping today, but instead the furnace decided not to work... hopefully, I can warp tomorrow.


* "new" is relative, I guess: have had it for almost one and a half year now, so I guess it is rather antiquated. Unless compared to the old loom-driving (very stationary) 'puter.

The never-ending story

or: yet some more pulleys

Considering I am a countermarche convert since first I tried one, it is interesting how odd counterbalance set-ups seem to come my way...

Have been to a flea-market again. Found some CB pulleys again. This time a pair of homemade(?) two-level type:

They look almost like the standard type, still sold:

- with the exception of all the extra holes.
They must be there for a reason, but which? To change the position of the pulleys? But if so, why?

DH speculated it was to be able to maximize the shed size.
But would that even be true, as, after all, the size/length of the horses (and their cords) must be so much easier to change than having to fiddle with a peg?
(Also considering the height of the reeds "way back when" - my old reeds measure between 5 and 8 cm, so theoretical shed size cannot have been a big question :-)

I left them at the flea market. Should anybody be interested, they will probably still be there for some time... light-weight and easy to pack. (Price? Don't know, unmarked) - come to think of it, there were also a couple of old-fashioned dräll pulleys, more or less like these

though I can't remember if 3, 4 or 5 levels. Again unmarked, but perhaps I could get a good price for both?
(If they are to be sent by post, they will probably not reach anywhere before x-mas)

The innards of one table-top mangle

(Sorry, the workshop is too narrow, and the assembled mangle is too heavy to move for just a "beauty shot")

This one is different from the one pictured here, in that it doesn't have a protector sheet. Instead, this one is made to just send the mangle goods through - if you want harder mangling, you will have to send it through again. (And, possibly again, and again...)

It came to me in need of some tinkering. Here are the pieces, "top-down":

When all the detachable pieces are taken out, what remains is the frame and the table (in two pieces, hinged to make it shallower. Under the front table, there is a "manual" and an admonition to store it safely:

On the right-hand side there is a gear of sorts, to make the bottom roller go faster than one wants to crank. (I had it off to clean it, but mounted it before I thought to take pictures)

Next, the bottom roller (the one with the gear and crank at the right-hand side) is dropped into place. The gears mesh with a bit of jiggling:

Then the top roller goes in, on top of the bottom one. The gears at the left-hand side mesh.

Two smallish pieces, one on each side, to press down on the top roller, go under the heavy cross piece. The spring just sits on top of the cross piece.

To complete the assembling, the top piece is put into place. It is fastened with 4 screws, two on each side.

(The whole shebang has five screws only - one for the bottom gear, and 4 to hold the top.)

To control the pressure, you use the top screw.

A detail shot of the "manual" (click to make bigger):

An attempt at translation:

Manual
Grease the wheel screw an all bearings. Turn the wheel screw to the right, to make the rollers press hard against each other.
The clothes should be folded with seams, buttons, monograms [embroidered, my note] to the inside. Let the rollers take the clothes over the whole width. The clothes should not be let to go around the rollers. The mangling ought to be done over the whole width of the rollers, that is not on one side only. Dents in the rollers that can occur because of seams, buttons etc will even out over time and will not impede the good [quality, working?] of the mangle.
When mangling is done, turn the wheel screw to the left.

Ystad [town is south Sweden] Foundry & Mechanical Workshop [ltd]

These old mangles are slightly simpler than a spinning wheel - and only marginally more complex than a traditional (Swe) loom (mechanically, that is). And they work as well...

More museum examples

On request from Meg I continued looking in the museum catalogue.
And I found two more "interesting" descriptions:

Weaving reed

Material: Wood, Textile
Technique: Knotted
Function: Dividing the warp

The [weaving] reed sits near the cloth beams [yes, plural - my note] in a weaving loom, directly in front of the shafts. It's function is to divide the threads.
The rectangular reeds consist of a wooden frame, into which thin blades of wood (in one instance metal) are mounted with a textile band.


Weaving shuttle

Material: wood
Technique: carpentered [my dictionary says "carpenter" is a verb, so it must be correct...?]
Function: weaving

Shuttle. A cloth consists of two thread systems, warp and weft. The warp is tensioned during weaving and is crossed at right angles by the weft. With the help of the shuttle, the weft is inserted from side to side between the warp ends. The weft can go over and under the warp ends. With a treadle loom the lifting and lowering of the warp ends is done by the treadles. The shuttle is [quill-shaped?], with a hole in which a dowel is fixed. The weft is fastened around the dowel. One [of the shuttles] is patterned in two places.


In all fairness: at Murberget, they have elected to transcribe the text in the old paper catalogue. These two artefacts have no pictures, but in many instances they show the handwritten paper entry, often from the 1920-1940ies. Here is one example.
(I have often marvelled at what the museum generalists came up with a hundred years ago... but that is another story.)

So, Murberget uses the original texts/descriptions - most other museums do not. I remember looking in the Nordiska museets paper catalogue, and... let me say I can understand why they do not transcribe indiscriminately.

However, what is interesting about yesterday's post is that it is written after 1991. As I recall, there were several books about spinning and spinning wheels out by then, even written by Swedish authors... And even generalists should be able to read?

Now, to cheer us all up, a picture:

The picture comes from here.

Be sure to click the pic to biggify!

A plethora of pegs

or: what am I looking at, here?

This little wheel is possibly the most well-pegged wheel I have ever seen. The legs are pegged in (straight, or slanting, into the table, so no way to get them out), the uprights too. The MOA is, of course, pegged in place. The back maiden has a slanting peg to secure it to the MOA. Both leathers are pegged in place, through the maidens - the back one with a slanting peg.

All the spokes are pegged to (through) the wheel rim, of course.

BUT: there is one oddity: the secondary uprights are NOT pegged, neither at the top (just inserted in slanting holes), nor at the bottom, where they instead are nailed, with metal nails.

Uprights and front leg pegged from the side:

One of the two nails present:

MOA and maidens:

Drive wheel - rim joins are pegged from the side, spokes through the rim (no "seating holes" for the spokes into the outer rim):

Treadle:

There are bearings for the wheel, too. Guess what - they are pegged in place:

So: what am I looking at, here? Is this an exercise piece?
First, all the pegs. Not only the number, but so many of them are slanting! It is natural to "secure" the leathers, but with slanting pegs through the maidens? (The orifice leather is sewn, though I have seen pegged ones before) The front maiden once had a nut, now lost.
Next, the table decorations. Rather a lot of work, on a piece of wood with a knot almost in the middle of the decoration? And with several (what-do-you-call-it? "help lines"?) showing? (There is one more knot at the back end of the table, too, making three knots showing on top of the table). All "ends" are notched, front and back of the table, front and back of the hole for the tensioning block.

Then there are two (at least) different woods: the wheel rim, the foot plate and the nut under the MOA appears to be oak, while the rest appears to be birch, the table possibly pine. (In my experience, birch is the most common wood for Swedish spinning wheels - and they are usually one wood only).
Looking at the MOA nut, oak doesn't look ideal for making threads; the nut looks kind of "sad" - it is obviously A Good Thing this nut is not very often used.
Also the wheel bearings: thicker than usual, u-shape with "wings" fitted into the upright. They are only half of the upright's width, made of brass.
All these oddities makes me think this may be a practice piece - it is not, IMO, good enough to be a (again, what is the word here?) journeyman's qualifying piece - if, for nothing else, the two very visible knots in the table. But is HAS a maker's mark...

Oh, and it spins nicely. It is my first with a sliding hook.

(Should I add: click images to biggify?)

Two weasels

(I could not link from the header - so here goes: spinner's weasel)

My first skein winder is of the type the skein-winder guru Grenander-Nyberg calls "clicking winders".

I came to weaving through spinning, so I really needed a skein winder. There are always ways to make balls - making skeins is more difficult without a tool, and some ppl are not quite made for using a niddy-noddy. I am one of these.
So I was happy when I found this at a flea market:

It clicks after 60 turns *.
It has a circumference of ca 153 cm (which is near enough to the 2.5 aln (ca 60 cm x 2.5 = 150 cm) often used as a standard measure - plus a small "fudge factor").

To off-load the skein, there is a way to "bend" one arm:

Another nice winder I have (that, too, found at a flea market - ) is this clock winder. That, too, clicks - or would, if it was complete. I found it so cute it just had to come home with me...

It is a lot more elaborate - or, on second thought, maybe not. It needs some repairs if it is to be used on a regular basis - maybe I'll get around to that some day. For now, it just acts as a decoration.

The front part is hinged at the bottom. Opening it, this is what we see:

The winder "cross" with its threaded axle lift right out.
This too has a circumference of about 155 cm - possibly a tad bigger than the other.

The clock face is (I think) from an actual clock. It is probably paper, and we can see that it is dated 9 years before the winder. The text says Å?? 1832; the middle line says Den (there should be a figure (date) right behind where the axle comes out) Mars, next line says Bengt SvenSon, and the bottom line reads I hylte hus. There is a place (a farm?) called Hyltehus near Laholm, and there is also a village (I think) of that name outside Hyltebruk. So I guess the whole thing might be made within some 100 kms from where I bought it...
(As usual, pictures get bi8gger when clicked)

On the back, it misses one vital part (if it is to "ping", anyway). I suppose there should be something fastened to the clock axle, to get the "clicker" go back. The spring still works - if I release it gives an almighty ping. (Obviously, this one also clicks at 60 turns *)

There are many thoughtful details - the holes for the bobbin-holder pin are lined with brass, the thread guide is also lined, and it has a somewhat more sophisticated "bending" mechanism. The whole thing seems to be made of oak.

Whenever using a counting winder, consider the mechanism carefully: most of them *need* to be turned one way only! Remember that, if you are going to use it as a swift, either take the skein "from inside", or disable the clicking mechanism.

* For some more history on traditional skein sizes see the article on old reeds on my home page (or here for Swedish).

It was a nice and sunny day...

and we decided to take a little trip. Once we reached the destination, it was much colder and windier than at home, so the walking was cut much shorter than we had thought.
When we saw the sign to a flea market we hadn't been to, we went there instead.

On top of a shelf I spotted something

It lacked one of the flyers, the paint job was sloppy and it was too expensive for a decrepit, albeit interesting, spinning wheel. Then I spotted the other flyer, found that the bobbin turned freely and the drive pulley screw was not rusted - and it was threaded for spinning S.
So I took it down.
Everything that should turn, turned. Some things not supposed to move, moved a bit too much, but on the whole, it seemed to be (nearly) in working order.
It came home with me.

On further examination, the paint job was more than sloppy, and also consisted of at least two different paints. The outer white flakes, under that there is another (whiter) white. In some places the inner white has flaked, too - there seems to be a reddish paint under that.
At least the outer white was painted on without disassembling, but I managed to unscrew the flyer assembly with patience and some grease.

The missing left flyer's what's-it-called (the leather pieces) will take some fiddling to replace, as they, too, are "painted in".
Also the drive wheels will not come off, because they are secured in place with nails in the back, and one of the, hm, "stops" on the front is missing, too.

The "accelerating" drive wheels are interesting. I have seen something like this many years ago in Ångermanland (which, perhaps, tallies with the "prime linens"... Grenander wrote some about double-flyer wheels, but of course I have returned the book now. Maybe I have to borrow it again...). If I measured correctly, the fast wheel has a ratio of 2,5 compared to the slow.

I suppose this is the tensioner for the drive band. It moves freely, fastens with a wedge. (Hmm - wedge? Really?) But how it the drive band supposed to go - over or under? If it goes under, it is difficult to replace, as the pulley doesn't come out?

And, at the back there is this little thing, about 7-8 cm, pivoting not-quite-in-the-middle. What can it be?

The wheel has a couple of reparations done to it - one of the flyer uprights has a piece replaced, one of the flyer uprights has a new finial and the distaffs are slightly different.

And the flyers are painted, too. Even the hooks.