By far, the biggest thing to happen in August was this Circular Sock Machine.  I’d been looking casually for one for a year or so but finally put the word out that I was in the market. The goal being to use up some handspun because I spin much more and faster than I knit or weave.

Within hours, an acquaintance said she had been thinking of selling hers. We talked it over for a couple of weeks while she finished up one more project and then on Aug 13th, we went and picked it up.  I’d never laid hands on a CSM in my life but I have used a flatbed knitting machine that I had to refurbish before I used it and already hand knit.   I also enjoy a challenge – which most people warned me this would be.  Everyone kept saying “there’s a big learning curve!” and there is but it’s no more difficult than learning to service vintage sewing machines. In fact, a lot of the logic process transfers across especially when troubleshooting tension or dropped stitches.

The previous owner had made mock rib socks and had never used the ribber.  She’d bought the machine refurbished from Chambord in Quebec.

It took me a couple of days to work up the nerve to try to work with the machine but since then, I’ve been trying to get a couple of afternoons a week in playing with it. Some of that time though has been used disassembling and oiling and generally becoming familiar with the machine as well as setting up a “workstation” for it.  I’ve watched tons of YouTube videos and have learned a bunch.

In the end, I had to do a few adjustments to the ribber to make it knit (or I guess more accurately, so it would purl).  It sat way too low as I received it and sitting a little crooked which made the ribber dial touch on one side of the cylinder and have a larger gap on the opposite side.  Then some general tension adjustment.  I think it’s a touch high but it stitches consistently at the moment, so I am leaving it as is for now.

It’s a PT Legaré “400”

• possibly circa 1900 – 1914 and made by Creelman (I think?)
  
• It wasn’t actually called a 400, its more proper name might be “The Money Maker” because that’s how they were marketed to Victorian era folks. It has the nickname of 400 because of the cast “400” in the base plate.  But it’s only one of several numbers – lots starting with 4xx – on the machine.  The crank for instance, says 403.
• 54 and 72 needle cylinders and a 36 needle ribber.
• Refurbished around 2019
• It’s currently installed on our Workmate table which is a pretty common setup among crankers.   I’m contemplating a bench grinder pedestal for it – mostly for the smaller footprint and a little height – but I will lose storage.  The best thing about the workmate, other than its stability is the storage.

There are a few upgrades I’m thinking of (slotted mast topper, a more adjustable and slotted yarn carrier) and some spares but those will be a couple of months in the future.  Right now, I just want to get to know it and start making some socks or at the very least sock blanks to dye!

Yes, it’s true.  This CSM came with exactly one spare bolt that I still haven’t found the home for.  I suspect though now that I’ve disassembled and also used all of it that it’s the one that was removed to put the row counter on.

So, now that I was knitting yarn from cones and needed to be able to wind yarn to cones, I turned back to the double ended weaving bobbin winder I’d made last year.  This winder had been working well except for one small issue.  When winding went normally, there were no problems.  Every once in a while though a bobbin would drag to a halt because of a yarn snag or some such and create too much heat and friction which would melt the ends.  That meant that the flexible filament I’d used in the original design wasn’t suitable for this purpose.  After casually thinking on it for a few months (before the CSM came home), I decided to try modifying the CAD files to take an O-Ring and use a rigid core instead.  Not unlike the Elna pulleys.  So I measured where most of the bobbins and adapters landed on the ends and set to work in CAD.

So far, these new ends have been working well.  The biggest problem with snagging yarn and having the cones and adapters spin on the winder has been one O-Ring spit off the end. Other than crawling around on my hands and knees looking for it, so far this is looking like a much stronger solution than the flexible filament. I plan to test for a while longer before calling it good though.

Carrying on with the bast fibre experiments from the Tour De Fleece, I tried a little on a spindle.

The spindle did fine but was probably a little too light (39g) for hemp. It spun too fast/back spun too soon and I had more breaks than I’d have liked. It may be possible to fix most of this with a heavier spindle. That was my fault for trying to defy the laws of physics or at least poorly interpreting them and choosing the wrong spindle characteristics.

The other thing I didn’t think of initially is that this is one of my turned spindle shafts and I use a non-water resistant finish which didn’t appreciate my too wet hands. I would switch to one of the original chopstick shafts for hemp in the future. The arms handled it just fine as I knew they would. I smoothed that shaft and reapplied its finish yesterday.

I will try one day with a more appropriate weight and a different shaft and update but my gut feel is that I prefer spinning line flax, tow flax or hemp on a wheel.

I found especially that I enjoyed spinning line flax from a folded dry dish towel (I used one I’d woven because why not?).  With the towel laid across my lap, I put a little line flax on the towel then folded the towel over top of it (like a hot dog). Then I pulled from the centre in a “from the fold” style. That seemed to help me control the twist and spin as thinly as I’d wanted to.

This month I also turned another support spindle – one that I’ve never even spun on.  The most I’ve done is see how well it can spin.  Then I lent it to a friend who’s wanting to try out support spindles.   I am still in the thick of it with “Accidentally Epic” – so it wasn’t going to get used anytime soon unless I started another spinning project but I already have 3 in progress and am trying to finish one more before I start something new.

As usual, turning reinforces the lesson of “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.  Even this close to the end of a turning, you’re not guaranteed a finished project. This spindle came off the lathe thanks to a catch right after this shot. You can see the damage – just – in the second shot, and clearer (bigger than life) in the third shot. I found one of those full diameter rings at either end from this spindle across the room a few days later.

You can see it turn here: https://www.instagram.com/p/ChJZ7D5OYBJ/
(swipe all the way left to see it spin. No, it doesn’t change direction in the video. That’s a single flick.) Edit: This doesn’t appear to be the cherry I thought it was.  A person who’s far better at identifying wood species than I am thinks it might be Granadillo.  Reasons are the colour, end grain porosity and the weight.  It’s far heavier than cherry should be and it’s a orange/red when unstained that cherry typically isn’t.

Despite the catch and unceremonious exit from the lathe, it spins well.

The other thing I managed to turn is the bobbin-pinne base I mentioned in the last post as well. Around 45 minutes to pick the wood, drill a hole for the post, turn the wood portion and install the post.  It adds about 100g of weight and stops the bobbi-pinne tipping over if you tug the yarn. It works very well. It’s bigger than this bobbi-pinne because I plan to turn some larger ones and hope to use the base for any one I choose.

I had initially thought this was black walnut but I’m fairly positive now that it’s not? It’s heavier/denser and dulled my skew really quickly. It also has a really smoky, fairly unpleasant smell to it – so does walnut when you first turn it but not this strong and that seems to fade to a sort of nutty smell. I associate this smell with smoky and “savoury” maybe like a backyard smoker but not in good way? I’m really hoping the smell doesn’t linger. The chips are darker than the black walnut I have here too which is more of a brown grey. These are more of a warm chocolate colour a bit lighter than this picture before you add a finish. It took finish really well and has more of a glow than the walnut I’m used to though. Edit:  I found out that this wood (below) is actually torrefied maple.  I won’t be turning it inside anymore either – it requires breathing protection and I won’t subject the cats to that – as the smell lingered for more than a day.  Outside only (same with acrylic but that’s mostly because of the mess).

Part of September is going to be working on V2 of the eSpinner I built back in 2020. This will be only as I feel like it though.  I’ve learned that working in CAD when I’m not feeling it just means I do 3 times the work and there’s going to be a lot of work in CAD already because how I design has changed a lot and these parts were some of my first drawn designs. I’m posting this mostly because I have alluded to this little device a few times but when it came up in conversation last week, I realized that I had never made a blog post to point folks to.  (*Checks that off her list of things to do!*)

The goals for it are largely appearance related. Mostly to make it look less like the dimensionally accurate reproduction of the wheel I modelled it after (for the learning experience) but also to make the base smaller and the eSpinner more compact in general.

I also want to build in a way to easily reinstall the drive band when it comes off if you remove the flyer.  Right now, opening the front is the easiest way but it requires tools and is hard on the wiring to the front panel.  This weekend, I had to solder one of the wires back onto the dial because it had been flexed too many times during prototyping/installation/drive band re-installation.

Other modifications are:

• metal nuts to match up to the fasteners for longevity
• a way to tension the driveband – right now, pony bead lacing does a great job though.
• a better motor mount.  When plying up some cotton last summer, things got pretty warm because of a printed belt that was a touch too tight and the motor mount allowed the motor to spin in the bracket.  That’s why the wires to the motor are twisted up.
• move the power to the left and the mother-of-all to the right so a proper brake knob can be installed
• change the mount of the motor to be a little stronger.  It’s not presented a problem thus far but I do like to over-engineer right from the get go whenever possible.

Here’s what V1.0 looks like today (yes, sometimes I make epic projects just for the learning experience!):

Today’s post title is inspired by another Canadian group: Finger Eleven (Of course that’s not what they were called at the time. Finger Eleven was a much more marketable name!).  It’s a bit of a departure from the stuff I usually post but in 1994, it was one I’d turn up when it came on the radio.

Circles – Finger Eleven

“Circles” is what was floating in my head while I wrote this (as in “cranking around in circles”).

“Older and better” though, that’s sort of my philosophy with vintage sewing machines and maybe the CSM too (though there are some pretty well made current models being produced, these antiques have stood the test of time and are far more affordable to get your feet wet with.)

I guess in a way, I’m older and better at what I’m doing here too.  Better with the lathe than I was 6 months ago.  Better at CAD than I was 2 years ago.  Better at having patience while learning than ever because I’m learning to be kinder/gentler with myself and not expecting to just be good at everything.  That (in retrospect) seems a little arrogant of past me. There’s no reason I should have expected to not have to put the effort in.

Absolutely no better at short posts apparently though.  Maybe once every few weeks or so instead of once every few months.  It will take some time for me to work up to that habit though.