It all started with a little innocent spinning while we were watching tv. ...
Then that little leather thing that connects the pedal to the stick thingie that moves the wheel snapped*. And when I say snapped, I mean snapped, we all heard the pop and the pedal hitting the floor and my eyes nearly jumped out of my head as I freaked!
Super Engineer (and close, mooching friend) Craig was on the job in an instant. What could we use for a replacement to the leather strap? Because I lack loads of random leather just lounging about the house, I stole into the sleeping kids' room and tossed my way through their wardrobe until I found an old pair of Cian's shoes and ran back out to the living room. It was mere minutes and Craig had Macgyvered a velcro shoe-strap into a new connecting doohickey for my pedal :)
I was happy spinning girl in minutes, all smiles and wool flying everywhere. And then..... (don't you just hate "and thens") my tension decided to start changing itself every couple of seconds and the flyer stopped flying and some freaked out ghost took over my lovely machine. Craig's engineer radar went off and his head popped up when he heard the weirdo sounds coming from my Ashford Traveller. In seconds, he was racheting something on the underside of my wheel. Can you see the serious tools next to the wheel? They immediately made me nervous so I started taking photos (you know, for insurance purposes LOL). Below is the racheting.
We tried spinning after the racheting, but the tension was even more erratic and more noises started coming off the wheel. Then we had both SE (Super Engineer) and the Irishman on the floor next to it swapping theories - I swear they sounded like neighbors drinking brewskies over a knocking car engine. Craig urged me to finish my plying so that he could have his way with the wheel. Below is what happens when you give an engineer Carte Blanche...
They were all sorts of great comments, like "well, my sister's wheel is way different" and "the wheel-part shouldn't really look like this." Nothing that inspired much confidence. In the end, he took absolutely everything apart and re-attached it. There was WD-40 in the air and lots more racheting sounds to match. And then Craig asked what I thought about that. About what? I didn't hear anything. So I turned to see my wheel spinning like a top, silent and silky-smooth. I do admit that I've seen people spin but never really paid attention to the nuances of the wheel - no way, dude! I just wanted to start spinning as soon as possible and the other stuff would work itself out in good time, right? Only if you have a Craig nearby :)
Speaking of silky-smooth - below is my first experience with Regia Silk sock wool. Wool, nylon and silk. Like buttah! I've been knitting these socks for a couple of weeks now (they're my travel-with project) and couldn't narrow down a recipient...now think I know of a Super Engineer with cold toes that has totally earned some silky-smooth sockness!
*Yes, I have Alden's book and I know there are super-duper really technical terms for all this stuff, but I'm too busy trying to spin.
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