Trampled by Geese is a reminder to myself to look at the positive side of life and to endeavour to only write about things that inspire me rather than focus on what is negative in the world. Kirkegaard once wrote, “Being trampled by geese is a slow way of dying, but being eaten to death by envy and greed is even slower and more painful”.
Showing posts with label Mystery Project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mystery Project. Show all posts
So this is a list I made for myself. This includes the videos I am actively working on and if they have any deadlines (and yes, dyslexia is a thing - don't even bother correcting, I promise it will do more harm than good).
To get on this list, the video needs to be in the filming, editing, writing, crafting, or gathering materials stage. The list fails to include some of the long-term projects where I'm gathering footage over several years (I started a flax video in 2019 for example), videos still in the planning stages, or videos that got stalled in the editing due to not having the right story to be worth making... yet. There are also a few secret projects that won't make it into this either.
My attention span isn't always what I would like. I admit, I find it difficult to stick to one task for long enough to get anything done. So I look around for tricks to hack my brain into getting stuff done.
One of those tricks is watching youtube videos in the background. It's a lot like when I used to watch TV, I knew the show was a set amount of time, and used that to guide my action. I would work until the show was over and it really helped to have the background noise to distract the part of my brain that want's to get up and do something else. Music helps too.
This last few years, I've been using Study With Me and LoFi Girl videos to help my crafting. But to be honest, studying isn't a good friend for crafting. It's so serious, the music is designed to cause deep focus and my crafting is more light brain work and repetitive tasks. I'm not engaging the same part of the brain.
I really needed something more craft specific. Preferably something with yarn, good music, and no talking.
But alas, the internet seems to be lacking in this.
So I made a thing.
I really enjoyed making this!
I want to make more.
I worry it's going to flop pretty badly by youtube standards. There's very little out there like this and even if I'm not the only one who needs something like this in their life to help make things, people don't know to search for it because it's too new.
Maybe I can make one a month, if I can stick to a schedule that much, if only to use up the extra footage that didn't make it into my main videos.
And maybe it will become a thing. I hope so. I imagine having a whole bunch of people making Craft With Me videos about many different crafts, so I can choose today I want to spin yarn, so I watch a spin with me video. Tomorrow maybe I'm in the mood for a woodworking with me video. I don't know.
If you think it's a good idea, please share with your friends who need a little motivation to get crafty.
Having a retirement flock of chickens living in part of the garden makes it easy to spend more time outside. They are each lovely with unique personalities.
Petrichor the rooster, has an arthritic wing, but still believes he's the strongest boy on the farm.
Lady loves to be sung to every night but won't suffer any duck but Mrs Clint - and won't go anywhere with Mrs. C.
Nana is the mother of so many chickens hatched on the farm. One of the oldest animals, she is slow, wise, and loves her comforts.
And then there is The Widow Clint. The only duck I met who was 100% monogamous and who's friendship with Lady kept her going through the worst of the grief. That and the worms we dig for her each morning. She can't wait for the worms.
We've had a break from winter. Double Digit Celsius days (over 60F) in the coldest month foretells a stormy spring.
But that's a problem for future us.
Instead, I take advantage of the sunshine and play with some yarn.
freshly dyed yarn drying in the winter sunshine
And digging the garden for when it is time to plant. Because gardeners are nothing if not optimists.
It's been 10 years since I've last worked on a vintage or antique sewing machine. I actually sold most of my parts (keeping only a few prized machines for myself and some parts machines if they break) and moved on to repairing other things. I love working with sewing machines, but the truth is, there was very little interest in these beauties and almost no good resources online on how to fix them.
The few sewing machine posts I have on this blog, are some of my best-performing pages. The interest goes up every year and thanks to the ads on my site, I'm earning between 1 and 5 cents per week from them (not much, but every little bit counts). It's amazing how much more interest there is now than 10+ years ago when most of them were written.
A thing happened the other day and I brought home a sewing machine that would, to any sane brain, be considered well and truly beyond repair.
Guess what? oh, you guessed.
That's right, I'm going to see if I can repair it.
I know the worst thing to try to fix is a bad repair, so I'm taking this slow and doing my due diligence. I'm spending a lot of time with my friends duckduckgo and google to see what new information is out there and WOW! The interweb is flooded with advice on how to repair and restore vintage sewing machines.
Most of that advice is horrible! I know this because I've spent many hours repairing the kind of damage following that advice causes.
About 5 to 10% of what's on the internet in this area is good advice. About 50% of what is left is okay, but not going to give the long term life that one wants or cause unnecessary work (most common seems to be removing the shellac or "clear coat" because they mistake it for caked-on oil and grime). The rest of the advice, I'm not sure if it's well-meaning or written by people who want the value of their machine to go up by destroying the existing machines.... evil laughter.
So the ratio is about the same but the quantity to shift through is so much more.
Although I am loving how much of this is on youtube now. But restoration videos are one of my favourites. I wish I had a sound safe studio space where I could make some ASMR repair videos for you all, but alas, something to dream about in the future - living in the country is NOISY (tractors, cars, planes, roosters, geese, sheep... )
Anyway, I really like this guy, as he doesn't recommend things I know will damage the machine.
Some of you have probably already guessed what my new treasure is from the photos. For the rest of you, all will be revealed as I'm going to document this project on my youtube channel.
But evaluating the machine, I also notice that I'll need to spend quite a bit more money on this restoration than usual. It needs new paint, and paint stripper and... I don't even want to think about it yet. Some of this I can improvise. Some I cannot. On the whole, I would be very very lucky if the cost of materials to restore this were less than the final value of the machine. Also, I might keep it as a forever machine. I haven't decided yet.
It's important to me that every hobby be self-funding, so part of this project is looking for creative funding ideas. Youtube now gives me money for ads (at just under a dollar a day for all my videos, so you can guess how small that is per video). But I also don't turn on all the advertising features like commercials that show up in the middle of the video. I can see clicking all the boxes for these sewing machine videos to see if I can the machine to fund its own repair.
In the photos, some of this is rust, most of it is old grease and oil. It will be interesting to find out how much of each.
So, here's some more photos of the current mystery project.
I got some free things from a yardsale, brought them home, took them apart and then combined the components in new and unusual ways until I arrived at a satisfactory arrangement.
Things are coming together at a slow and steady pace.
In other news, goggles are not that easy to make, steampunk or otherwise.
The idea is good, and the fit, but I think I chose the wrong materials. Buy the time I'm finished, the whole is too small to see through. Might be fine for hanging around you neck as a fashion statement, but I'm hoping for something a bit more practical.
I actually got a few stages further than theses photos show, creating and installing a gasket from an old leather coat. But what I really need to make the goggles of my dream is some 1.5 inch brass plumbing couplink. I think this town must be crowed with steampunkishly minded people, because there isn't a shop in town that carries it. Ah well.
I've been tinkering away at my latest slightly steampunk mystery project where I convert an old (non-restoreable) vintage sewing machine into an Other-machine. Well, last night - rather late last night - finally finished modifying a piece of perspex and put it into place. I now have a fully functioning other-machine. Photos to come later, once I've finished decorating it.
Now, how to decorate it? I still have to install the cooling system. I'm also thinking of installing a clock (clocks are pretty standard for steampunk) - but I'm tempted to install a radio instead. I have this gaping hole to fill you see, and adding leavers, nobs, or other decorations that don't do anything doesn't really strike my fancy.
Yes, I know I've been remiss with my blog, my zine, my etsy shop, my online presence in general. But I figured you didn't want to hear me moping about deaths of Cockylocky and Chicken little, the epic battle of the rose that went on in the household - and still isn't over I think - Talk about projection and deflected anger (some of it mine I'm sure, but from my point of view I care for the roses daily, it wasn't the first bloom or the only blossom on the bush, I just wanted on little flower for my room, there was no need to yell at me... never mind). And then there is today's battle: trying to teach a professional cleaner how to clean efficiently without chemicals. A box of borax lasts 8 to 14 months, not 2 hours! This week, since reading instructions is obviously not working, I've tried repackaging the materials to look more like store bought chemicals and hidden the ingredients for making more. See how that goes.
For those of you waiting for the next Crowing Hen Guide. Inspire me! What do you want to hear about? Over view of natural cleaning materials and a few recipes for your house? A treatise on composting? How to rid your roses of aphids and black spot in under a week WITHOUT using those nasty chemicals? How to clean and oil a vintage sewing machine? An in-depth discussion (okay, monologue) on how to clean floors using natural products - many of which are already in your pantry?
I'm overwhelmed with things I want to write about that I'm having trouble just sitting down and getting started. I really don't know if anyone's interested in these things. Am I just writing them to stop bending the ear of every poor chap that chooses our driveway to turn their car around in?
Take a couple of broken sewing machines, some stuff found in the back of the workshop and a bit of creativity, and you get something that looks suspiciously like a science fiction ray gun.
I assure you, it's really not. It's completely designed for function, the fact that it looks awesome is just a side effect.
Think cutting rather than shooting. This is for the nether regions of my currant mystery project where I transform a damaged vintage Singer sewing machine into something a little bit different, yet highly functional.
I spent a good chunk of the day - when I wasn't wrestling llamas or tending first aid to llama related injuries - dismantling a Singer 15 sewing machine for yet another steampunk mystery project.
The project involves this machine, or what's left of it, plus a table, saw blade, and some decoration.
I'll tell you what, this machine is a thousand times easier to deal with than that 1970s Brother I was dealing with last month. I have yet another box overflowing with spare parts for future steampunk projects. How many parts boxes does a girl need I wonder.
Changing the function of this from sewing machine to other-machine (that's the mystery part of the project) is going to be relatively easy. What's going to be difficult for me is the decoration aspect. It's not steampunk unless it has copper pipes, some gizmo's, dials, maybe a touch of leather. I don't know if I'm lucky that I'm starting with something already reminiscent of the Victorian age, or if that just makes it more difficult to decorate.
I don't think this is going to be the ultra-decorative Steampunk object of the upper class adventurer. Rather, I suspect this is going to be more Frontier Steampunk. I am in Canada after all - the New World. Something utilitarian made from cast off and recycled parts, with a little bit of whimsical flare to it. Sounds about right.
For inspiration sake: if you were to decorate a machine head in a steampunk fashion, what would you do?
After many hours and a vigorous go with a hammer, it's decided. The Vintage Brother sewing machine is beyond redemption. First time I've met a sewing machine I could not recover.
Built in redundancy seems to be the problem. Despite being a heavy duty machine with cast metal body and wonderful features, there is this one essential cog/cam that was bound to break. It's a mid-grade plastic and has to stand up to wearing against metal cogs all day long.
I put most of it back together, but have several bits leftover I didn't bother to reassemble.
What did I learn?
I learned all about how zig zag and fancy stitches work in a machine. So many lovely springs and leavers to boggle the mind.
I learned not to put too much energy into cleaning the machine until you find out if it works and whether it can be repaired.
Most importantly I learned when to walk away.
Some of the machine I could salvage for parts later on, I suppose. This dial in particular has a real steampunkish feel to it. It might do for my Mystery Project later on.
But as for the rest of the machine, I can't think of anything better to do with it than put it all in a box labelled 'dead brother'. Wish I could find some inspiration to give the remains of this machine a new kind of life. I'm not really big into jewellery making... what else could I do with it?
Found some neat stuff at yardsales yesterday. Among them yet another Singer 127 sewing machine on a treadle base for next to nothing. Problem is, it's in absolutely rotten shape. Everything's rusted, including the treadle base. However, it does have some parts on it that I can use to repair this 128 I have hanging around. Perhaps the left over parts could be used for art part of my mystery project? What do you think? Do manual sewing machines seem steampunkish to you?
I also found these nifty tags.
Of course, this means that I had to play with my typewriter. But I don't need much excuse for that.
I'm having the hardest time finding what parts I need for my mystery project.
It's not just finding the parts (either at an affordable price or by selvage) but also adjusting the system to compensate for the parts I've found.
My brain is getting tired learning all this new stuff.
The plan was to run something that takes 550W for at least 20m. That way I can make coffee. Because I'm sure there is loss and stuff throughout the system, I rounded it up to 600W for 30m.
My rice maker takes less than half that for 45min, but I know that the maths are not that simple.
I would like it to create AC power so that it will be compatible with stuff already around the house and I don't have to buy some special DC kettle or stuff.
Problem is, I don't yet have a battery and I don't know where to get an inverter or a controller for the input, &c.
But maybe this will help.
It plugs into a car lighter and converts DC to AC. It's not strong enough for my coffee maker, but it will run most things and it has a plug on it that looks just like the ones you have in the wall.
Originally I thought to take it apart, and try and steal the relevant components from it, but I'm not sure I would know what they look like anyway. Now I'm thinking make the system modular. Get a plug like a car lighter plug and attach it to the battery so that this can plug in. Then later when I find better components, I can easily replace them without major rewiring.
Any thoughts on where I can get an affordable controller thingy - the one that controls all the input from my solar panels (wired in series perhaps?) and my generator and a possible third input. They are all fairly low level input. I just need this controller thingy and a battery, then I can put it all together and start playing..
The German's call it Schreibmaschine, or so Google tells me. I call it orange.
I've been looking for a typewriter for months now with no luck. There are very few available around these parts and what is for sale is priced far beyond my range. But I knew, if I waited and continued looking, something would reveal itself. I just didn't expect it to be exactly like the one I dreamt about all those months ago right down to the swapped Y and Z.
The typewriter is made by Karstadt and speaks German. It even has a QWERTZ keyboard and loads of letters with dots over them. I'm going to take a stab in the dark (based on what I've seen of other orange typewriters) that it's from the early to mid 1980s. Maybe earlier. The plastics are a mix of bakerlight and that in-between plastic that is called something like acetate. I actually really like the feel of these plastics as most plastics (like the mouse on my computer) react with my skin slightly.
The reason why I could afford this typewriter is that it's broken. The carriage return did not return. So when you 'press enter' or go to start a new line, the paper just whooshes back to the end of the line of type and not to the beginning like it should be.
But what they heck. I can fix most sewing machines, surely a typewriter is something like an antique sewing machine.
So I did what I always do with mechanical devices, I very carefully and slowly took it apart - Taking photos of each stage so that I can put it back together again. I took it apart a little bit, then I poked things gently with a stick until I could see how it is suppose to work. I discovered that the problem was in just about the centre of the workings under the carriage return.
Lucky for me I could reach and didn't have to take it apart further. The spring is suppose to hold this little ratcheting catch against the central turning thing so that the paper place would move over one space with each letter typed.
Nothing appeared to be broken or bent, it just appeared to be too stiff for the spring. A little bit of light weight sewing machine oil and pressing the Space key a zillion times to work the oil in and presto! Problem solved.
All the other issues, like sticking keys, were easily solved with cleaning and oil. These two links walk through exactly what you need to do to clean a typewriter: Here and Here
So what did I want a typewriter so badly for anyway? Never you mind. You'll find out soon enough.
You know what I think? Zombies on tv and in books are quite comical. However, when they are actually happening at you, zombies can be terrifying and strangelymesmerizing. I had the hardest time waking up from that dream this morning. I don't even remember the details except that someone was serving zombie meat on a cruise ship because they ran out of pork, thus turning all the cruise ship guests into pseudo-zombies. But thankfully I decided to go vegan just moments before dinner for no apparent reason.
I'm not even sure I know what a pseudo-zombie is, but it was just as scary as a real zombie.
That's dreams for you.
Some spinning:
This is spun from some wool I dyed with onion skins long, long ago. I knit some socks with the first batch of yarn, but had lots of roving left. So this week I spun it up just the same as before and presto. Now there is new yarn for sale in my shop.
The mystery project is at a bit of a stand still. I can't decided on what I want to power with my system so I don't know what battery to look for. I'm really tempted to put a standard 110V AC plug on it, but what kind of battery can provide that kind of power?
One other project that I'm working on right now has hit a snag. The snag is called open office. Did I have this much trouble telling MS Office to do what I wanted? I wrote some stuff, and now I want to print it as a booklet. You know, where you have an A4 paper and turn it on it's side and fold it in half, put a staple through it. That kind of booklet. It doesn't seem that hard...until you try and figure out the page order. I even tried using templates (that didn't work well at all!).
La Sigh. My office software and I are not speaking at the moment.
The fountain pen is not what makes this project steam punk. It's just there because I have trouble writing with a ball point.
This is a diagram of what I originally thought my mystery project would look like.
Okay, no I don't mean it's going to 'look like' as a final finished project. There's a lot of aesthetic elements I want to add. By look like, I mean this is how my brain thinks of electrical stuff. My brain wants to think of Section 'A' being the 'power in' section this same brain wants to think about it as being almost completely isolated from section 'B', the 'power out' section. Now I'm beginning to wonder if these two halfs are really that disconnected.
I am beginning to understand that there needs to be lines to indicate how these items connect together and items that go in between what I've drawn here. I am learning, albeit far slower than I use to learn new things. I'm beginning to realize just how much damage my illness did to my brain. Oh well, I'll keep worrying away at it until the neurons start making good pathways and I can see things clearly.
Sharing this diagram with you does not diminish the mystery of my mystery (increasingly steampunk) project. Lots of people have made things like this, like that cool system of how to use your bike to charge a battery that can run electronics that Natalie linked to in yesterday's comments. It's the aesthetics and materials that I hope to use that will make this project steampunkish and unique. As there is no coal or steam involved, it's hard to know if it will fit squally into steampunk but then again, neither does putting a brass pipe and some cogs on a USB drive (not that I'm saying anything against putting brass pipes and cogs on a USB drive - quite the contrary, I would love one of those, but I have to sell some more yarn first).
This is some mystery wool I dyed with onion skins (no mordant) a long time ago. I use to spin this on a spindle while waiting for the ferry to and from Seattle back when I needed to go to the States for medical treatment. I used it to knit some socks and they turned out lovely and warm. I had a whole bunch of dyed roving left over, so I thought why not spin the rest up on a wheel.
And back to the mystery project.
I took apart one of the small, broken solar lights we have. These are those little lights that you stick in the ground to light up the edge of a path, or in our case the pond. They have an AAA battery and turn on the light when it gets dark. I don't know if they will serve my purpose as I'm not sure what part of the system tells when it's dark or not.
Oh dear, I hope I'm not moving away from the world of electrics towards electronics.
I can more or less understand what's going on here. The pale green stripy thing is some sort of resistor. The solar panel produces 2 volts (thank you trusty meter thingy) and the battery needs 1.5 volts. My theory is that the pale green stripy thing is taking the 2 volts from the solar panel and reducing them to 1.5 volts so to make the battery happy. But I could be wrong.
The other side was difficult to photograph and show up the shiny paths. I am assuming the shiny patterns are where the electricity goes. (please remember they didn't cover this stuff in university level philosophy)
I can more or less trace the path and see how the switch completes the circle. What I don't understand is what does the big black dot do in the middle? I have solar panel and light and battery all feeding into the black dot. Is this the thing that tells the battery to charge during the day and the light to go on during the night?
Am I even close on any of these theories?
Any recommendations on a good book to read? I took some out of the library but they are not very informative. Most of them are kids books and say things like "get your parents to buy this Stirling engine and then look how neat it is" without actually telling us how these things work. Not really worth suffering through all that ink.
Mystery (increasingly steampunk) project update: Didn't do much yesterday except learn how to read the volts on my meter thing. Still not sure how to read amps yet, but then again I don't know much about what amps are anyway. I'll get there soon.
Also, gathered together the broken solar powered lights (little garden path lights and big motion sensor lights). Apparently these outside motion sensor lights they make are not very weather proof. Earwigs and moisture everywhere. So we brought them under cover to dry out before I take them apart. But I need to put down that thick rubber mat before I get started on that.
Today's goal for the mystery project is to go yard-saleing and see what I can glean for free or cheep. Still searching for some sort of battery that will do my bidding. Apparently I want a deep cycle battery. Still learning why.
I figure the solar panels come with this charge controller thing. This makes sure the battery does not get over charged. I'll have to find something like that for my human powered generator.
The more I work on this, the more it's turning into a functional art project rather than the purely practical origins it began with.
Still offering handspun yarn for person who can coach me through this.
Yesterday was extremely rainy, so very little farming got done.
Instead, I spun a bit of yarn. This is creamy Corriedale I spun thick and thin, plyed with a very fine merino, 2ply yarn by Habu.
I'm really please with how it turned out. The muted orange contrasts the cream of the Corriedale beautifully. I'll put the yarn for sale in my shop just as soon as I can get some better photos of it.
In other news, the mystery project continues. I acquired this device that reads volts, amps and other electrical related things. Only thing is, I don't know how to read the dial.
Um... please help. I need to figure this out before I move on to the next step of my mystery project.
Further progress in my mystery (and increasingly steampunk) project:
What I learned today: I can easily produce at least 1.5 volts of DC current and a whole bunch of amps with an old sewing machine electric motor. It takes very little effort and can be sustained for hours.
But is it enough to charge a battery? Is it a lot of power or not much at all? Can I just attach my electric motor turned generator to a battery and hope it charges it or does there need to be something else involved? If I put two sewing machines motors in series and turned them at the same time and rate, would I produce twice as much power? Do batteries like amps or volts more?
These are things I need to know?
Still offering extra-special hand spun yarn and / or lovely spinning fibre for person who knows electrics and can help coach me through this project. Heck, I'd even through in a free vintage sewing machine if you could pay the shipping cost.
Seeking person to help me design a project and coax (coach - stupid spell check) me on how to build it.
It involves transforming motor into generator to power a battery. Also adding solar panels to power same battery. And putting a plug so the battery can power something - a lamp being the lowest user and possibly a kettle or toaster oven for the higher user.
Hoping to make this with as many reclaimed materials as possible, to cut down on cost and environmental impact - so I need to know where to salvage and when safety dictates I need a new one.
I have basic electrical knowledge (aka, I know there are electrons and magnets and to disconnect the power source before soldering or tinkering with other things. I can also follow a diagram and use those little cap things to attach wires together).
I just need someone to help with the design, to figure out what other parts I need and to coax (coach - I sear my spell check is getting stupider by the day) through any assembling troubles.
Will pay in fibre and/or yarn.
I've lost everyone's emails addresses this winter, so if you are someone I know, please either email me or give me your address again. Thank you.
