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dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Wed Feb 05, 20 4:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

another look at it and it was filling a spool from something using no visible tension adjustment (fingers?)

if it pulled its own feed from a free running bobbin for converting spinning wheel size to half a jumper on a stick size what bits are missing?

it might be for winding carded wool in fluffy, even thickness, aligned and as yet untwisted fibre strands (or whatever they are called)ready for easy spinning later.

that sort of thing often needs hands on to work out what it is

glad you are back online

cassandra



Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia
PostPosted: Thu Feb 06, 20 7:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

If you look in the basket to the bottom left, there is a square edged thing with some yarn tangled around it. That is the flyer. It goes on the metal shaft and the orifice end drops into the saddle on the short stick closest to the camera. It's Irish tension so the drive band goes over the bobbin and as far as I can tell some sort of strap drops over the orifice to secure it in place. whether that is part of the flyer or missing in action is a bit of a mystery so far.

The tension on Irish tension is apparently a bit tighter than on Scotch tension, so pulls the yarn in more rapidly - handy for art yarn I gather from my reading around the internet, and also for chunkier yarns (a big positive as I spin quite fine).

I was reading the shadow as diagonal split break along the grain, but it is just a shadow and it appears all bits are present (unlike the Traditional on the right). There's also at least two bobbins for it, as the traddy bobbins are different to those I can see. Also the fitted lazy kate is in the basket so not MIA as originally thought. I have finally contacted the vendor and they are apparently not snowed under with offers, so I will go look on Saturday.

I also have the manufacturer's guide to assembly which shows all parts clearly, so I can do a stock take. Meanwhile the local wool shop being an Ashford dealer can hopefully supply missing parts, though as this wheel went out of production in the 1980s, they are no longer manufacturing them, so it's only if it's in stock.

Feeling quite chuffed. But I really need to start my online red cross training for tomorrow's training day, haha.

Today was at the shop where I sold 86.00 worth of stock and half filled a bobbin with steel grey yarn. So a good successful day once more.

cassandra



Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia
PostPosted: Thu Feb 06, 20 7:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Oh, and it's an Ashford Scholar - the earlier model. My spinny friends IDd it for me, and found the manual so I am good to go working it out.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Thu Feb 06, 20 7:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

If they are all in bits with parts missing, I wouldn't be paying too much for them. Don't know what the asking price is, but if the seller isn't exactly snowed under with offers, I would do some bargaining on them. Useful you have found the types and the manuals, so you can tell which bits are missing.

Dpack, with hand spinning, it is not usual to have the fibre pre-twisted. It is either spun from the fleece, which is usually carded, either by hand or drum carder, or from rovings or similar. The last 2 projects I did I got rovings as they were beautifully coloured but my next one will be from the fleece. When I have finished my rug, which should be quite soon now.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Thu Feb 06, 20 10:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

the spun from fluffy sausages takes the skilled fingers part out of spinning, tis just a matter of changing rollers and cones, tying string and adjusting tensions.
i did not know that hand spinners always treat the select and order the fibres, the feed as one process.


from a quick rough calculation of spinning frame vs hand spinner/s a basic frame that one person can mind is about 200 to 500 times more productive than one person and a wheel.
hand made and machine made are different products and very different societies

i am from an area that felt the full effects of that, a couple of days back i was telling a taxi driver we were on a battlefield while sitting at traffic lights . the dragoons had 2 cannon and grapeshot, the luddites had no artillery and our spot was right in the middle of the carnage. iirc that was 1811 but from the 1780's to the 1840's things got quite radical at times.
a complex mix of politics, economics, societal change often bordering on ethnic cleansing and or enslavement(by wages and dependency) and at times looking more like genocide.
the bad stuff was partially countered by the enlightenment, worker education and solidarity, shooting the odd scumbag or whatever was useful at times at others less so those and a few other things eventually led to getting some men the vote and some of the worst georgian excesses being curbed.

im not sure but iirc some of our later luddites/chartists might have ended upside down others were less fortunate and got dead or fled/migrated/got job in't mill/starved etc

les saboteurs and the luddites had similar issues in that one machine could starve a community of hundreds.

cassandra



Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia
PostPosted: Thu Feb 06, 20 11:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

One of my ancestors got a free trip to Australia for being found with bits of cotton mill in his possession I think he'd be proud of me

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Thu Feb 06, 20 1:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    


gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Thu Feb 06, 20 2:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Did your ancestor get a business going, or did he come back to the UK a changed person, Cassandra? There may be millions in the bank to which you are entitled!!

Not too long here to-day, the kindling is flying off the shelves as usual and I am trying to keep up. Maybe it is time to stop the proper job and live on my pension and start proper gardening again. My old veg. patch is now covered in trees so fuel will be coming my way if I decide to clear it, but right now I have a lot of timber felled which needs tidying up, but mainly soft wood with a couple of ash thrown in.

Back to the chopping block!

cassandra



Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia
PostPosted: Fri Feb 07, 20 7:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

No he married a nice girl from Newcastle who had been transported for robbing her employer of 10 guineas, and they set up a farm and butchers shop.

I thought I was doing a First Aid training course today so sat up till midnight doing the online component and thus slept in. Made it on time, but it turns out that was one of the dates I had blocked out, and the actual course is not till the 19th. So having nothing better to do I popped out to look at the wheels and ended up bringing them home as the owner knows where I live and I promised to pay on Tuesday.

The Scholar has all its working parts apart from a missing bush or washer from the main wheel. There's a long screw that attaches it to the upright, but according to the manual there's something that is supposed to go between the wheel and the upright. So that part has progressed as far as it can, and I have 'broken' the flyer and reglued it as who ever did the job last time didn't know what 90 degrees looked like.

It's a very small wheel, and has a great design element which they seem to have dropped in later wheels. The upright is adjustable in height, so the orifice can be at the height that best suits the spinner. It is also a large orifice (you can get a reducer) so good for art yarn and other chunky stuff.

I've scrubbed it all down with steel wool, turps and linseed, so it looks much nicer, and smells divine. So it's only little things like the spring for the tension and such like that require a trip to the hardware.

The other wheel is an Ashford Traditional - they are a dime a dozen, but a nice useful beginner's wheel. The poor thing has been sitting in a shed so long the glue has come unstuck at the hub, so I need to find my clamps so I can reglue it (heaven knows where they are, I have looked in most possible places).

The basket contained three flyers, one each for the two wheels, and a spare on which had me mystified until someone pointed out it looked a bit like a jumbo flyer. Quite a bit like when I compared it with the one I already have. Three of the bobbins are mystery bobbins, but the other 5 belong to the two wheels. Some require re-glueing.

And a couple of cards and a comb to boot. So a fair bit of work to get each wheel going, but worth it, as I should be able to sell the traddie (and lazy kate and bobbins) for the same price as I bought the lot for. Our craft outlet opens on the 20th and I can sell it through there.

So not an entirely wasted, day, and still more to be done on wheels tonight.

Tomorrow will be a bullock parade to raise funds for the bushfire victims on the mainland, so I may well dig out my victorian gown and go spin in the street for a bit.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Fri Feb 07, 20 7:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

An ancestor of my husbands was give a trip to Australia for a difference of opinion about a pig. He claimed he carried it home for a bet, but neither the owner or the magistrate believed him. As far as I know, by Australian family arrived by more respectable means, but as we have completely lost touch I have no idea. Husband also has more recently emigrated family in Aus.

I hope your bullock parade goes well Cassandra; for a good cause, and should be quite a spectacle. Glad the wheels have turned out to be worth having. Personally, I can't stand the smell of linseed oil, but we all have our own taste in smells as well as flavours and colours.

Dpack, I know the industrialisation of Britain was a bad time for ordinary people. I am not sure how the effects were felt down here, as this has nearly always been a rather agricultural area, but I am sure that the 'poor' didn't benefit here either. It has taken over a hundred years to get back the rights the people lost, so let us hope they are not lost again.

Spent the day bundling birch, so all of the stuff we cut Monday is now bundled and in store in subdued light. Hope it will all be all right and that the weather stays cool enough to get some more cut. I think I have about the same amount as last year, and a few bundles left over from that cutting, but they may well be used up before the new stuff is really ready. I also want to start making Sussex pimps, so will need the older stuff that is left over for that as well as any new stuff that is unsuitable for besoms.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Fri Feb 07, 20 2:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

agricultural depression, migration to industrial towns , hampshire to manchester or the midlands is only a few weeks walking.

imported food and ag equipment made being a serf or even a tenant farmer very difficult.
they left rural life and formed much of the new industrial workforce often in jobs very unrelated to rural life

a few relocated rurally to provide food for industrial towns.
two of my gg grandmothers relocated (better than starve) from rural south west Scotland 1830's and Galway 1840's due to the great famine

first married a radical blacksmith in a pennine village above the dark satanic mills, the latter got a job as chicken girl on a smallish family farm a couple of miles away
13yrs old with a boat ticket and ten bob, walk alone from west ireland to a boat then via liverpool and then walk across north england til she got to the pennines and found work and a new home. she eventually married the son of the farmer.
her mum and dad and 5 siblings all perished in the great famine.
i know nowt as to what happened to the scottish one's left behind family.

the only definite long distance migrants i know of are the cornish ones who ended up down a hole in south africa, chances are others went wherever there were metals underground so i probably have distant rellies down under and south america. if there is a hole there is a cornishman at the bottom of it.

when i was about 17 the SA ones wrote to my mum inviting me to come and have a look at the potential for a wonderful 1977 style south african life i declined with a publicly diplomatic excuse but what i really thought was far less polite
hindsight suggests i made a good call on practical as well as ethical grounds

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Fri Feb 07, 20 2:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I think I said my dad's lot came from Scotland and when sheep became preferable to people, they went to farm in Suffolk, where the land lord eventually took the land back and the family Gregory went to become steel men in Sheffield. Mother's side came from Kinlet in S. Shropshire where they were farmers, then coal merchants and bakers-what a combination-not sure how they met, as granddad's gang came from somewhere local to Wolverhampton. My Yorkshire dad, of the original Scottish lot, came to the midlands to an engineering company where he met my, now living in Willenhall, mother who lived opposite his digs above a café, they married and here are my brother and I!
I've done a bit of moving around Walsall-Wolverhampton-Bridgnorth- Llanrhaeadr-Y-M, and now Llanfyllin, and very happy!

Not sure how anyone would want to fall out over a pig to get a free trip to Aus. Not sure I would want to lead a bullock in a street situation either, Cassandra. I guess you have to start young as they do with show cattle. And to watch I would want to be upstairs. Anyway good luck from a distance! I've shown a lot of pigs in my time and they can be "funny" to show in a ring with other pigs they haven't known since birth, or weaning. You have to do the "getting on together" stuff at home and with careful introductions! They all settle down eventually. When we used to wean 10 sows at a time, we would always put a boar in with them to help curb any trouble. I was lucky to get a pig man's job at Harper Adams College, after being a student there, for a few years, I learned a lot there, and forgotten most of it now!

Off now to get chopping and refurbish the shop with kindling a bit later on.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Sat Feb 08, 20 7:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

The only parts of my family I know about go back to rural Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. One of my great grandfathers was a servant (think probably a gardener) and went to work in the parks in London and the other was born on St. Helena of British parents. Both came from small farming roots, and I think I may still have some family farming in both places, although I have never tried to find out. Perhaps our family were lucky.

Gregotyn, the incident of the pig was that ancestor claimed he had brought the pig home for a bet that he couldn't carry a pig (think probably a weaner or not much bigger) all the way home, but the owner and magistrate thought he had stolen it as it wasn't returned, and it is thought that he and his family may have eaten it. Rather hard to know at this distance in time.

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Sat Feb 08, 20 10:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Not much to report this morning except a lousy night in bed! The electricity went off around 10 pm, so I got my head down and when I woke still no electricity. So bang went doing my Sudoku, which is where I turn when I can't get off to sleep again. I normally wake biro in hand in the morning! Eventually I got my small torch and did Sudoku for an hour or so and woke up as usual with torch still lit, at least I got some sleep. I thought it could just be my place, but went outside and found a neighbour who had the same problem so all 6 houses on "our" line are without. He phoned up and they promise to fix in the next 3 hours from about 9 am, and so in time to heat my pasty! It is silly as it "goes" every year-about twice-so what can be at fault?

I am off home to get some more kindling chopped as I have some sawn ready, but wanted to do all the sawing first so that I could just chop for the next 2 days.

You are right about the pig MR, regarding weight even a live pig of weaner size-8 weeks old-would be a hand full to carry anywhere for any distance, and be very vocal probably.

cassandra



Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia
PostPosted: Sun Feb 09, 20 8:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Power outages are a real pain - apart from everything else you have no idea what time you have woken up at (especially in summer when it might be daylight, but also might be anywhere between four and nine)

We had our market today - two additional stall holders and a bit of extra marketting on the local facebook pages, and we made over $100.00!! Feeling very chuffed at that. Not a huge amount, but almost double our usual takings.

I have also taken the measurements of the kitchen/toilet area so as to upscale them and start working out what fittings we can accommodate. There seems to be general agreement that we have two or three central lights and I have persuaded some that additional power points will allow us to have LED strips along the walls if additional light is desirable for the market. Also chatting to a friend who has an interest in establishing an LGBTA (or whatever the initials are this week) support group for teens as well as running a crafting group to teach traditional skills - both from the Hall. So that's good news - all very tentative at present. But as we have a 28 year old local farmer's son who has only reconciled with his family recently after leaving at 16 because his parents couldn't cope with his sexuality, it's clear there is a need for the younger members of the community. How some elements of the committee will cope remains to be seen.

We have a public holiday tomorrow and since I am presently falling asleep (it's only 7pm), I think a sleep in might be in order. I only have to catch up on washing the Hall linen so that should be acceptable.

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