My overarching goal has always been making useful things useful again. That’s whether I’m fixing sewing machines, doing woodwork/woodturning, refurbishing spinning equipment or creating something in CAD from scratch.

I talked about 3d printers in a previous post and how they’re maybe not what people think they are, yet.  That’s not to say they’re not ready to bring new life to things.

Every once in a while when I’m knitting on my antique sock knitting machine, I pull the bum off a cylinder needle. They’re basically latch hooks but with a foot or protrusion that the cams in the machine push up or down.

The needle in the picture below is missing its foot. I’ve done it twice but figured out why I did it so it shouldn’t happen as often now. In the meantime though, I kept the needles as souvenirs – planning to turn handles on the lathe and use them for laddering up stitches. How I was going to go about this though baffled me for a while because they have a rectangular profile and they’re pretty fragile. This was more challenging by the fact that they wouldn’t install straight into a handle because of the belly you can see in profile of the needle.  Installing into a wood handle could write them or the handle off.

This weekend, I finally decided that this wasn’t a woodturning exercise, it was a 3D printing exercise. 30 minutes of actual non-swearing time in CAD (I’m getting more proficient finally!), 35 minutes of printing and my vision was realized but in a different medium. I actually got this in a single take.

This. doesn’t. happen.

Usually I have at least 2 iterations that I print but a half dozen in CAD. It’s such a tight fit that the locating pins are installed with a rubber hammer and no glue required. It will be interesting to see if the locating pins hold up.  They’re printed standing which is the weakest way but I was unable to break them when I tried to do it before install.  That’s the joy of a slightly less rigid material.  I could bend it but not break it.  It should do well here.

I printed up a second one to carry that other needle with me to knit nights for laddering up manual mistakes. (The background is my first weaving project from about 2018? – and some cat fur for quality control)

Now I’m eyeballing other tools in the house with duct taped handles and otherwise less than optimal conditions wondering if I just need to rethink how I want to repair or refresh them.

I’ve been pretty quiet since the calendar ticked over to the new year.  I’ve been tired and I’m fighting some sort of upper UTI or something. Started antibiotics yesterday.

I did manage to dye up the 4th skein of yarn that will make up the Frankensocks.  Naturally because I refuse to make notes on my dyeing experiments, back in December when I dyed the yarns on the cones, I got more blue than the teal/turquoise greens I was aiming for.  This time when I tried to make that blue, I made teal. I really should start writing this stuff down. Maybe I’ll commit to that this year.  “Repeatable results”.  I think they’ll still match well enough for frankensocks though?

The other thing I managed was my first pair of handspun, machine knit socks.  I’ve been wearing them almost non-stop.  They’re off long enough to be washed.  The fibre is Southdown/Jacob.  I finished the spin in 2020, dyed it this past October.  The socks are wonderfully soft for a down breed and they’re wearing really well.  These are the socks I’ve been wearing in my boots when I’m out of the house and they show no wear. The only thing I’ll change on the next pair is that I’ll do a 1×3 rib instead for a bit better memory.  These are doing well in the meantime though.

How’s the first half of the first month of 2023 been to you ?

 

Today’s post title: The Kills – Future Starts Slow