Some thoughts on vintage sewing machine repair - coming back to it after 10 years

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.

Happy sewing everyone!  

Experienced shepherdess seeks bummer - only ewe lambs need apply.

I am looking for a young ewe lamb or two to hand raise and join my flock.

I have a small fibre flock and work from home.  I love spending time with my sheep.  But we aren't lambing this year and I miss having the little bleaters underfoot. 

I would like to buy one or two young ewe-lambs, not yet weaned.  Preferably a bummer that the mum is unable/unwilling to care for. 

I have no specific breed in mind, but I would like it to be a squishy wool good for sweaters and socks (most of my current flock are Cotswolds).  A Suffolk or Suffolk X would be lovely for sentimental reasons.  Will consider "meat" breeds as they often have lovely fibre - what keeps a meat sheep happy and healthy also makes good wool. 

This will be a forever home.

Rams, wethers, and hair sheep need not apply.

Self identity - Spinster

Even before I knew the history, it was a word that sang to me. I love the word spinster. 

It might be that childhood worry that every story was about the boy meeting (and often rescuing the girl) and they living happily ever after.  I like the ever after part.  But why was it impossible to be happy without being married?  

Why does one need a second person to become complete?  

And what happens after "happily ever after"?  

There was so much missing from those stories.  I liked better the stories about the boy getting lost while walking down the street and finding his way home again by remembering all he had seen, or the one where the boy plants some beans and has an adventure only to come home with everything all better.  And then there was the train who thought he could, and he did.  Pretty nifty stuff.  Each story had lessons I could use (take note of where you are going, 5 magic beans will buy a cow, and keep on keeping on until you get somewhere or bow a gasket).  

So when I found a word for "woman who lived happily ever after without a handsome prince to save her." I was happy.  Only to find out too soon, that Spinster was an evil word in our society.  One to be avoided.  The Old Maid to be pitied and given charity.  

And yet, Bachelor is a word meaning joyful single man who is having lots of fun before settling down.  

That didn't seem fair.

The other day I was in a second-hand shop.  I saw the most gorgeous mini sewing machine (more on that later).  By some miracle, it was within my budget.  (it needs a bit of love to get it working, but I'm up for it).  

I asked the front desk to hold the sewing machine while I had a quick look around.  When I returned, the woman behind the desk was trying to sell the sewing machine to an older man.  I think she was flirting.  But what stuck out most was the words she said as I walked towards the counter.

This would be the perfect sewing machine for a bachelor like yourself.  

My reply, It would be even better for a spinster.  

Her reaction wasn't anything to do with me interrupting her flirting or that she hadn't seen the 'hold' sign on the sewing machine and was trying to sell my treasure.  

Her reaction was that I used the word Spinster.  

I couldn't have gotten a stronger reaction if I did something evil in a church (not sure what evil things people do in churches, but I imagine a room full of outrage and shock and an immediate storm of voices trying to fix the unwanted behaviour - something like Reddit, but better dressed).  

The word Spinster is not to be used in public.  She made that quite clear.  

And yet, the word Bachelor is a compliment.

I love that we now live in a world where people can self-identify.  They can choose their own pronouns to match their true self.  Once again people are able to choose their own gender roles in society and not be restricted by the nature of their birth or upbringing.  Even ACE (asexual) is starting to be recognized as a real thing and not an illness.  We live in exciting times.

And yet, Spinster is still treated as a dirty word.

I was born female.  And I was born unmarried.  If Spinster is a dirty word, then we are saying that my birth is unacceptable.  I don't feel that's right.  

Spinster has a second meaning.  An older meaning.  A meaning from long before it had any relation to marital status and happily ever afters.  It means a person who makes their living spinning yarn.  

I make my living spinning yarn.  

Spinster is a beautiful word filled with history and romance.  It is self-contained and implies that happily ever after can live in one person.  I don't need a prince to rescue me just yet.  I'm having fun.  

Distaff Day 2022 - where I dress sticks in wool

We look at the past and forget.  

It's easy to do.  We forget that the spinners of years gone by didn't spin yarn for fun, or to save money or for sentimental reasons.  They did so because, without yarn, they were bloody cold!  

Yarn is survival.  

All the incarnations.  Be it string, twine, rope, thread, yarn... all was made by hand and without it humanity couldn't thrive in the extreme environments that we do today.  Yarn binds us together as a species.  

What amazes me most of all is how universal yarn production is.  Every culture that makes yarn has three steps (draft, twist, stash).  Sometimes these are done by different people (Cowichan Nations and Ancient Egypt), but always the same three steps.  Draft, twist, stash.

And almost universal is having something to manage your fibre source.  Often this is a distaff.  

If it was as clumsy as it feels to my modern hands, people would have given it up long ago.  And yet, even well into the 20th Century, handspinners who are connected to their cultural roots and a time when spinning yarn was a survival trait, still used distaves (plural of distaff).  

Last year, I set out to perfect my distaff spinning skills.  I got pretty good at it, but I also learned that one year is not long enough to master this skill.  There is so much more to learn.

But... I did learn lots and here are a few methods I found work well for me for dressing a distaff with wool.

There are as many ways to dress a distaff as there are spinners who use them, so try lots of things and find out what works well for you.  There is no wrong way so long as it gives you the results you seek.

A special treat on Christmas Morning (or Holiday Day as I call it).

 Does anyone else get this obsessiveness?  An idea in the head and the whole of life and cleaning house and everything cannot happen until that idea actualizes?  

Just me then.

Well, I don't know where it came from but one morning I woke up needing to build a thing.  I had no idea how to do it.  But it infested my every waking moment.  

So I made the thing and I made a video about making the thing.

It's not perfect.  It's not even close.  But I made it.  I ate it.  It was DELICIOUS! 

It's amazing how much you can learn about a thing by making it out of gingerbread.  It also inspired me to learn some special effects for the video.  

Happy Holidays everyone!  

The best way to learn how to build anything!

There are things you know you know,
things you know you don't know,
and even things you don't know you know.  
But it's the things you don't know that you don't know that will get you in the end.
-paraphrased from some politician I can't remember.

I've been working with spinning wheels for nearly 20 years.  Repairing, assembling, using, spinning, buying and selling, teaching, technical support, writing, researching, and other adventures.  I know a lot about spinning wheels.  

Or at least I thought I did. 

What I didn't know is how much you can learn by building a spinning wheel out of gingerbread.

That's right, gingerbread.

Gingerbread must be the most unforgiving substance to build from ever!  Rigid when you don't want it, crumbling at the wrong moments.  Even making the parts thicker doesn't guarantee strength.  But rather, understanding the forces at work and the stress points is key to successfully building something out of this crazy material.  

I learnt more in two days of failure and one wheel-shaped object than I ever knew I didn't know.

My first attempt was not as awesome as the image in my head.  Actually, it has no resemblance to the image in my head at all.  

But I kind of think I might try again next year and see if I can do better.  

If you want to build or repair spinning wheels, and you want to do it well, build one out of gingerbread.  You will learn more than you ever knew you didn't know.

Can I sell my handspun yarn? Here are some tips from an expierenced seller.

 Another one of those "this is something I wrote elsewhere and wanted to keep a record of so I'm reposting it here" kind of posts.  There is a lot more I could say on the topic, but I need to leave something for me to write about in the future.  For now, good enough is good enough.  

Selling yarn in person!  I'm so glad you are thinking about this.  It's so much fun!

Some things that help:

• Make stuff with your yarn! Seriously. This is the best way to improve your spinning by working with your yarn and learning how to improve it.
• Have samples of what you made so people can see how the yarn behaves.
• Make yarn in large batches. My batch size is one kilo. People want to feel confident they have enough yarn for their project.
• Make the skeins all the same size and price (400yds is enough for a pair of socks and is a good length for most yarn)
• Have ball winder and swift on hand and offer free use of them (get the ball started, and get the person winding their own if things are too busy)
• Price according to the time it actually takes. Don't take less than minimum wage.
• Hint, if you don't know how much your time is worth, use the 'broken arm' standard.  If you had a big order and you broke your arm, how much would it cost to hire someone to make the same quality yarn?
• Do some time and motion studies on yourself. Get a stopwatch if you don't have a phone that can do this. Find out how long it really takes.
• Pricing too low often (subconsciously) indicates the quality will be low and people don't want to buy it
• Specialize - make only sock yarn or only sweater yarn until you are perfect at it. Make knitting yarn or crochet yarn.

Most important of all:

Learn to FINISH the yarn.

Finishing includes many steps, but basically, we are handling the yarn several times over distance. So when I take my yarn off my bobbin, my skeiner (a click reel because I'm measuring at this stage because the other stages expand the length of the yarn by about 3% and I want the customer to get the best value) is about 8 yards away from my bobbin. Then I wash the wool and block it. To block, I put it on the swift and put the blocker at least 8 yards away from the swift and rewind it.

The distance helps distribute the twist and handling it each time helps you see if there are any flaws.

If you are selling to weavers, wind under tension so that if the yarn will break, it will do so now, not on the loom. fix the break by tieing a knot big enough for the fingers to find when the weaver is working with the yarn.

If you are selling to knitters, a splice is better as they don't like dealing with knots.

From my experiments, garments made from finished yarn pill less and last about 6 years longer than ones made from 'right off the bobbin' yarn.

Also, you are going to get people complaining about the price - no matter what the price is.

When this happens I offer to teach them how to make their own.

They reply: oh, I couldn't possibly have the time or the skill to make that.

I stay silent and try to keep my face friendly and confident. maybe nod slightly.

They usually buy the yarn.

A little bird told me... sewing with a sewing bird (and how to make your own mocking sewing bird)

It is entirely possible I made this entire video so I could reference 3 seconds of a Dr Who episode.

I've been wanting a sewing bird since long before I knew how to sew.  I'm frugal with my spending and antiques are far too expensive.  The brass reproductions are pricy enough.  But I put a price watch (camelcamelcamel.com is great for this) on my dream bird with the expectation it would never drop that low.  But it did.

The sewing bird is designed to solve a major problem with hand stitching - back and hand pain.  It is supposed to give more control of the needle and fabric.  And having tools that inspire makes it easier to avoid procrastination.

Before I spent money on it, I decided to try an experiment.  Could I make a tool that would do the job with random things found around the house?

SPOILER: Yes.  Yes, I can.

So here you go.  My adventures hand stitching, making a mocking bird, and finding out if a reproduction Sewing bird really works.

I hope you enjoy it.  

There are a lot of things I could do better, I know.  But this video marks yet another big step towards making the videos I want to make for you.  There is a lot more focus on storytelling as well as - what I hope is - informative and useful information.  

If you like this sort of thing and want to see more of it, here are some things you can do to support me on my creative journey.

- go to youtube and give me a thumbs up!  Or even a subscribe!  That would be awesome
- or pop over to my Etsy shop and support me that way.

Why I hand sew so much more these days

 Given how bad my arthritis is getting, I would think I would give up sewing by hand, but I find I do it more and more. My sewing machine is actually tucked away for a while but I'm still working on a few projects like a sleep shirt and new skirt.

I've been thinking about why I hand sew so much these days.

It's not because it's fast. It's not because it's easy. It's certainly not because it's painless. I'm not very good at it and my stitches are still uneven.

These are also the factors that keep me coming back.

Arthritis - the doctors say keep moving those hands as therapy.

Easy/not good at it - I love learning and perfecting new skills.

Slow - that's a bonus. I took a mindfulness class about the same time I started sewing by hand and I found out a lot of the things we learned in that class are easily applied to hand sewing (And making tea, and lots of other things). But I find I like the slower pace as it increases the value of the finished item in my mind. It encourages me to maintain and repair it for a longer life.

Sometimes I think maybe it isn't as slow. I spend a few moments here and a few moments before bed and before I know it the top is finished. Whereas with the sewing machine, I need dedicated time and I can't always find that in my day.

Sustainability/preparation - something I can do if I ever lose my sewing machine or other adverse events happen.

And portability. It's nice to have something to do in those empty moments while out and about somewhere.

If you like this sort of thing and want to see more of it, here are some things you can do to support me on my creative journey.

- go to youtube and give me a thumbs up!  Or even a subscribe!  That would be awesome
- or pop over to my Etsy shop and support me that way.

Fun and foolishness

 

Nothing serious today, just a fun video of Beau, the rescue alpaca eating apples.

Because... why not?  

Current events - everyone's fine - Nov 2021

We had some rotten weather this weekend.  Thankfully the worst missed us.  We're fine but tired.  

Most of all, enjoying the return of the sunshine. 

Keeping warm during the power outage was fun.  But it's also an excuse to get away from the computer and play with some yarn.

Got over some procrastinations on a big project I'm working on.  

Although I would have liked to do some more sewing, the lack of light (and lack of a non-electric iron) kept me playing with wool.

Stay safe all.  I hear it's bad out there.  

What time is it? Time blindness and watching out for a watch.

 I've always been a bit time blind, but lately, it's gotten a lot worse.  I've been musing on what to do about that.

 Many years ago, I had a job where we had to be on time within 10 seconds of the schedule.  We had all the responsibility for making certain everything was on time and absolutely no control over the factors that caused things to be late.  That kind of disconnect is demoralizing.

Not long after leaving that job, I stopped wearing a watch.

Now that I live on the farm, wearing a watch on my wrist is a fast way to destroy a watch.  

Besides, the chickens don't care what fiction the watch tells us.  The day begins as it gets light, and ends as it darkens.  That means in the summer, my day ends at about 11pm and on Christmas Day it very seldom lasts beyond half-past two in the afternoon.  

It happened there was a doctors appointment the day after Daylight Savings ended.  And of course, the confusion;

"I thought you changed that clock."

"No, I thought you... any idea what the actual time is?"

Yep.  The same old conversation.

I've been thinking of wearing a watch again.  But a wristwatch is out.  I'm resisting getting one of those smartphones.  That leaves a fob watch (pocket watch).  

I dug out my old fobwatch which is a cheap mechanical watch in a lovely umeboshi case that never kept the time.  Now I remember I took it apart at the start of the year to find out why it was broken and if I could move noon to the 9 Oclock position.  I figured out how it was broken, but I didn't have the skills to make it unbroken... and I ended up making it much worse.

My first choice would be to fix this watch.  I really like this case, but I haven't been able to find replacement watch guts for it.  I wish the only horologist wasn't all the way downtown as I only go there once every five years to get my drivers' licence renewed.  

The second choice is to find a new mechanical (one I wind up every day as batteries only last a couple of weeks on me) watch I can love.  I haven't found one in my price range yet.  I will just have to wait until the time is right.

But there's also the issue of pockets.  

Perhaps if I add watch pockets to all of my skirts, by the time I finish, the perfect watch will appear?

To that end, I found this awesome video on historical methods of putting watch pockets on skirts!

It's given me some good ideas I want to try.

I really like the information in her videos.  The sound is a bit difficult, but the captions help. 

If you like this sort of thing and want to see more of it, here are some things you can do to support me on my creative journey.

- go to youtube and give me a thumbs up!  Or even a subscribe!  That would be awesome
- or pop over to my Etsy shop and support me that way.

Willowing in the garden - Overcoming two self-imposed speed bumps

 Why am I hitting fluff with sticks?  Read on my friends, it's fun.

You know how you read or watch a nifty thing and you think you have the skills to do it.  You just never take that final step to trying the new thing.  Maybe you aren't confident you will do it right?  Maybe you let yourself get stuck on the tiniest detail (how long should my whippy willow rods be - I need specific numbers people!  How many inches?  No one will tell me, never mind, I now have a good excuse to return to my comfort zone.)

My friend Brenda took away my excuse not to try this nifty thing.  During the Virtual Sheep to Shawl, she set up a willowing station.  It was so much fun, why wait so long to try this?  

So I did what I do, and I took my new skill home and pushed it to the limits to find out what it can and cannot accomplish.  While exploring this skill, I discovered that there aren't many resources for it on the internet, so I made a video.  

The problem is, it's not the kind of video easily done within my comfort zone.  

My preference is to have as little as me as possible in the film, be it visual or voice.  I'm not that interesting, why would anyone want to waste their time listening to me... or so the voices in my head tell me.  

But this is more limiting than liberating.  I have a list (currently 5 pages long) of videos I want to make for you, but I don't want to make half-ass videos.  Each video I make, I want it to build my skills and to provide something useful to the world.  I have a lot to say on many topics and doing it silently wouldn't do it justice.  

I'm not sure if I'm saying this clearly.  

But learning the skills I need to make better videos is like flogging myself with whippy willow rods.

This video passes a huge milestone in my journey.  I cannot say how much courage it took, because I suspect for most people, this act would take no courage at all.  

Put simply, I do a lot of talking.  A voiceover for the whole video describing with a touch of storytelling in hopes of making a technical tutorial interesting. 

Emotionally and physically this is exhausting.  But I did it.  I published it.  No one yet has noticed (or at least mentioned) the mistakes I made with my speech impediment (mid-Atlantic accent mishmash that let a few regional flaws slip through)

These videos take longer to make, so I'll probably be alternating between longer with talking and shorter something silly videos for a while.   At least until I get into my grove.  

But it's a lot like willowing - a lot of fun and I don't know what took me so long to try it.  

If you like this sort of thing and want to see more of it, here are some things you can do to support me on my creative journey.

- go to youtube and give me a thumbs up!  Or even a subscribe!  That would be awesome
- or pop over to my Etsy shop and support me that way.

Washing wool - Why do I use orvas paste?

 I'm desperately trying to wash the rest of the wool before the rainy season sets in.  Even on hot summer days, it takes two days to dry the wool enough for long term (air/bug tight) storage.  In the winter (aka, rainy season)... well, it's a challenge.

The other challenge is in the warm weather, the animals get first priority with the well water.  So there aren't many days when I can wash the wool.  

Washing in the garden helps, because then the dirty water not only waters the plants but it adds a lot of benefit to the garden.

So why do I use Orvas Paste?

Orvas paste is pretty much pure SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate) which is extremely unpopular in cosmetics and soaps these days.  SLS makes a lot of suds and is often added to shampoo or detergent to make it look like it is working.  We are trained that bubbles do the cleaning (this is not true, but it is believed).

A lot of people have skin sensitivities to modern detergents and soaps. Quite often SLS gets blamed for this.  So they buy things that are SLS-free.  Their skin gets better.

Sometimes SLS is the cause.  But more often, I suspect the problem is poor quality control of the ingredients.  If a company takes the effort to remove the most common additive, then it is probably paying a lot more attention to the ingredients that do go into the product.  

I think this for two reasons.  One, quite often I am washing wool with someone and I stick my hand in the Orvas Paste and they stick their hands in it either.  Then they comment, oh wow, this is awesome stuff, I normally get a rash.  Then they panic from it being SLS.  But still no rash.  

The other reason is my own skin is hypersensitive to just about every soap.  Even real soap made from lye and oils can cause massive blisters.  Orvas paste is one of the very few things I can use without hurting my skin.  

Orvas paste is often used to wash babby animals, like lambs and goats.  

It's also quickly biodegradable so it's safe to use on the garden without having to dilute the wash water first.  Most other washing substances I've tried, kill the plants - always test on a section of lawn before using in the garden.

Most of all, I love how quickly it rinses out of the fibre.  All the other detergents and soaps I've tried, take a lot of rinses to get the residue off.  

But if it causes a reaction to your skin, then don't use it. Test a small area of skin first. 

Also, different cleaners react differently with different minerals in the water supplies, so always do a small batch to test.

Orvas paste:

• doesn't hurt my skin
• doesn't kill my plants  
• biodegradable
• mild insecticide in the garden
• need very little (1-4 Tablespoons per fleece) - it actually works better with less
• extremely affordable $40 for enough to wash a hundred+ fleeces
• great on protein stains (like poo, urine, and blood)

It's not the thing for everyone.  But it works for me.  

If you like this sort of thing and want to see more of it, here are some things you can do to support me on my creative journey.

- go to youtube and give me a thumbs up!  Or even a subscribe!  That would be awesome
- or pop over to my Etsy shop and support me that way.

It's so pretty! - fluffy yarn spun directly from the locks - and some thoughts on making movie tutorials.

Lock spinning to make a boucle style single (unplied) yarn is one of my favourite novelty yarns to spin.  

It's fast to spin.  It is pretty.  It is SOFT!  

What's more, you don't need fancy equipment to prepare the fibre.  We can do a little plug for my etsy shop where you can buy some lovely Cotswold locks and just start spinning on a wheel or spindle.

Most importantly, this is a great yarn to spin to learn more about making good joins.  An essential skill that can transfer to all other yarn making.  IF YOU SUCK AT JOINS, SPIN THIS YARN!  To be textured, strong, and yet unplied, is more of a challenge than it looks. 

To test the joins, put your bobbin on one side of the room and winder your skeins (niddy noddy, skeiner, yarn blocker, whatever) on the other side of the room so that there are at least 5 yards between - 10 is better.  The further the distance, the better the test for strength and a better idea of how the yarn will hold up in use (this is true for all handspun yarns).  

This is the very first serious video I made for my youtube channel.  I made it on the software Windows Movie Maker.  This software is a lot like a 50-year-old Dorthy Loom.  You can do some amazing weaving on it, but it has so many ... um... what's a kind word?  Limitations?  It has so many limitations and takes so much effort just to do a simple shed change (cut and paste), that if someone wants to keep weaving/making videos after their first project, then you know they are going to do well in the craft.

At least that's what I hope.    

Windows Movie Maker was a good stepping stone, but looking back on this video, there is so much wrong with it.  So much I would do differently!  Even just taking the same footage and re-editing it, I could do better.

And yet, when I look at the youtube metrics, it's not doing too poorly.  It is doing a darn sight better than some of my more recent videos edited with better software and more understanding of the "right" way to make a video.  Just shows that doing things 'right' doesn't always get the best results.

We're back to equipment - and not needing fancy stuff.  

This yarn avoids a lot of the difficult steps of preparing the fibre with hand cards, flick carder, drum carder, or combs.  It just jumps right in and teaches us how to perfect the most difficult part of spinning - joins. 

Same with videos - I wish I had started making these 10 years ago.  I knew I wanted to, but I wasted so much of my life waiting for the right... whatever.  Imagining perfection came from reading/watching, rather than just doing the thing.  Maybe that's why the video did (and is still doing) so well?  Because I took a chance and made a thing?

If you like this sort of thing and want to see more of it, here are some things you can do to support me on my creative journey.

- go to youtube and give me a thumbs up!  Or even a subscribe!  That would be awesome
- or pop over to my Etsy shop and support me that way.

It's a Test! A germination test.

This works with any seed (although the wait times vary), I find it useful to test flaxseed before planting so I can know how thick to sew the seeds.

When it comes to seeds, flaxseed has a very short shelf life.  Two-year-old seed often has poor germination rate so running this quick test will tell you a lot about how much you need to plant.

What you need:

• some seed
• paper towel or cloth
• water

Count out at least 10 seeds (I like to do 10, 25, or 50 as they math into 100 easily).  The more seeds you have, the more accurate the results.  10 seeds are enough to get a good idea of how the batch will grow.

Fold up the towel/cloth and place it in the conditions the seeds would normally germinate.  

For example, if these were tomato seeds, then put them somewhere warm and dark like on top of the fridge.  Since these are flaxseed, put them somewhere fairly cool or room temp.  I left mine on the windowsill.

After a few days, check on the seeds and count how many sprouted.  For mine, 8 of 10 sprouted, so I know I have a germination rate of 80%.  That's pretty good for (non-commercial nursery) flaxseed.

If I have low germination, like 50%, then I can still grow the item.  I just need to plant twice as many seeds for the space as I would if I got 90+%.  

A video on growing and processing flax into linen

A book about Homegrown Linen; transforming flaxseed into fibre

So how am I doing with youtube Short?  If you like it, please pop over to youtube and give it a thumbs up and maybe even leave a comment.  This will let me know if it's worth making more of these little videos.

If you like this sort of thing and want to see more of it, here are some things you can do to support me on my creative journey.

- go to youtube and give me a thumbs up!  Or even a subscribe!  That would be awesome
- or pop over to my Etsy shop and support me that way.

Making choices about silk, silkworms, and homegrown sericulture.

A while back I made a video showing off my pretty silkmoths.  (silkworm and silkmoth are used interchangeably) 

Of course, the question is asked - that is always asked whenever we talk about raising silkworms.  A very important question and one I've done a lot of soul searching about.  I've read a lot.  I've asked a lot of questions from people on all sides of the discussion.  I've asked questions of people who at first glance have nothing to do with silk and sericulture (growing silk) but turn out to be extremely relevant to the conversation.  

Warning!  This is going to be one of those difficult conversations.  THERE IS NO RIGHT ANSWER here.  Each person is going to need to make their own choices and if somehow this blog entry gets more than four readers, I'm going to remind you that I moderate the comment box.  Comments on all sides of the discussion are encouraged.  Comments that accuse, boss, tell others how they should live their life, or are phrased in a not nice way (all subjectively judged by me), will likely vanish without further warning.  

And to make certain you really want to read this, I'm putting a "read more" button beneath this pretty picture.

Can I grow cotton as a houseplant? Spoiler alert - YES!

I've been growing cotton plants in Canada for a few years now.  Mostly in the greenhouse, with mediocre results (harvest 3 years out of 5).

But being bitten by the houseplant bug  I decided to try my hand at cotton as a potted plant.  After all, it is perennial, has beautiful foliage, and gorgeous flowers.

Oh, and it produces cotton I can pick and spin.

Here's a short video with a timelapse of the flower, how I pollinate it, and the result.  

If you like this sort of thing and want to see more of it, here are some things you can do to support me on my creative journey.

- go to youtube and give me a thumbs up!  Or even a subscribe!  That would be awesome
- or pop over to my Etsy shop and support me that way.

Winter is coming! Better dress for it. (is flatlining still a sewing thing?)

I don't know if it's just me, but I find fabric shopping one of the most frustrating things in my life.  

That and washing the dishes.

I know enough about sewing to put together clothes.  I know enough about fabric to weave it.  But I don't know enough about either to put the two things together.  If I did, I would probably buy my fabric online so there could be more money left over for more fabric buying.  The thing is, I don't even know where to start, so there's a lot of trial and error going on.  

This week I went to the Big-Box-Fabric store (not the real name) and under the glaring lights, I try to find something that isn't made for quilting or made from a petrochemical.  I like natural fibres.  It's probably not the best place to look for this, but it's nearest to where I was going that day.  

Perhaps some cotton twill fabric, like jeans, would make a nice winter skirt.  But wow, that's expensive.  So I settled on some wool-cotton blend that was almost half the price for some reason.  The occasional kemp hair in the fabric might have something to do with it - it's that kind of thing that gives wool a bad name, so scratchy!  

 Isn't it pretty?

The red cloth is a lightweight cotton sheet I got at the Salvation Army.  Organic cotton next to the skin - very happy!

flat felling seams by hand - not an arthritus friendly activity

I'm not happy about the washing instructions on the wool blend (dry clean only isn't in my vocabulary), so I ignored them and ran the yardage through the washing machine on a gentle cycle last night.  It came out okay.  No obvious shrinking or puckering.  Mostly cotton and already well fulled, that's what I expected.  Although next time I should do a sample first.

Time to try a new technique I saw on Bernadette Banner's videos (she's the skinny one with the happy voice that does a lot of Victorian and Edwardian sewing - and my hero).

Bernadette calls it 'flatlining' which seems to be to sew the lining and the outer layer together as if they are one cloth.  That doesn't seem to hard, although I wish I could find more tutorials on why and when and how to do this.  Perhaps it has a new name?

Or perhaps people don't do this anymore?

Since I'm not matching patterns, I should be able to get two skirts out of this.  I don't know if I'll have enough left over for this project.  It's probably better if I don't.  

Hoping to get at least two warm skirts for this fall.  Not sure how well this will work for farming, so I need to keep looking out for another easy to wash cotton twill or the like.  Does anyone know an affordable (preferably Canadian so I don't have to pay customs) source for this kind of cloth?

ps.  Sorry about the poor lighting in the photo.  It's winter and the sun probably won't be showing herself much until spring.  I need to get my winter lights up into the workroom.

If you like this sort of thing and want to see more of it, here are some things you can do to support me on my creative journey.

- go to youtube and give me a thumbs up!  Or even a subscribe!  That would be awesome
- or pop over to my Etsy shop and support me that way.

Silkmoths - mindfully buggy

I have to admit, when I first got silkmoths (also known as silkworms), I was uncertain.

Why would any yarn loving wool guardian want to deliberately bring moths into the home?  As a gardener, I have nightmares of the ravenous damage cabbage moths can wreck on a garden.  

And yet, when they finally arrived home, I found I love them.  

They hatch out all black and spiky but very quickly turn into smooth milky munchkins.  There is something about their smell like fresh leaves.  Their sound is just light a light rain which is so gratifying to hear in the middle of summer when we've had no rain for months.  And their complete dependence on me for everything.  

I have to take the time to wash the leaves (I found out what happens when you skip that step this year - it wasn't pretty) and dry the leaves and clean their home and all the things they need to thrive.

Little break of mindfulness five times a day.  It's so easy to be right there, in the moment, even if that moment is only a few seconds while I toss some leaves in while I'm rushing to answer the phone.  

And then I'm rewarded with lovely silk cocoons.  And BEAUTIFUL moths.  

Hopefully, this video can capture some of the calm joy these little guys bring into my day.

More on the yarn making process another time.

If you like this sort of thing and want to see more of it, here are some things you can do to support me on my youtube journey.

- go to youtube and give me a thumbs up!  Or even a subscribe!  That would be awesome
- or pop over to my Etsy shop and support me that way.

Magic in the water - finishing handwovens

They call it 'magic in the water' - the process of finishing handwoven fabrics.  

But why?  

At the recent fibre festival Fibrations, Beatrice explains the fulling process on their handwoven shawl.

This is the entry for the Virtual Sheep to Shawl contest by team Shuttlefish!  Amazing work guys.  All handspun and handwoven.  

If you like this sort of thing and want to see more of it, here are some things you can do to support me on my youtube journey.

- go to youtube and give me a thumbs up!  Or even a subscribe!  That would be awesome
- or pop over to my Etsy shop and support me that way.

It goes round and round.

What can I say?  

I had fun at my first fibre festival in almost three years.   

I didn't buy anything in the end, but I got some cute videos of fun stuff.  Including, one of my favourite booths...

Yes, I know.  I really do need to get my knitting machine out and start knitting socks..  I have a few projects to finish first, then socks, here I come.

For this video, I decided to try something new.  Let me know if you like this kind of foolishness and I'll make some more.  

If you like this sort of thing and want to see more of it, here are some things you can do to support me on my creative journey.

- go to youtube and give me a thumbs up!  Or even a subscribe!  That would be awesome
- or pop over to my Etsy shop and support me that way.

The distaff defense

My new hero!  

Self-defence classes never go out of style.

I was looking for a video on how medieval people used to make distaffs (yes, I get bored sometimes), and stumbled on this video.  Thought you might enjoy it.  

Solving a problem that really bugs me - YES you can make your own drop spindle. For FREE!

When I learned to spin, I also learned to make a drop spindle.  

It's so easy and you can make one out of just about anything.  Improvised drop spindles are everywhere.  

But as I continued my journey into spinning, I learned that most spinners never made their own drop spindle.  Worse, most would-be spinners never start spinning because they are lost looking for the "right" or "proper" equipment.

This is wrong.  

The "right" equipment is the one in your hand.  The "right" time is now.

Our ancestors made spindles out of all sorts of things - and didn't always have time to walk 8 days to the nearest spindle shop to buy a new shaft or whorl to replace a broken one.  What's more, they made enough and good enough yarn to clothe themselves and their families.  The quality of the yarn isn't in the tool - although good tools do help -  The quality of the yarn comes from the spinner.  

So I made a video to try to fix what I see as a big problem in the world.

Watch to the end to be rewarded by cute chickens.

If you like this sort of thing and want to see more of it, here are some things you can do to support me on my youtube journey.

- go to youtube and give me a thumbs up!  Or even a subscribe!  That would be awesome
- or pop over to my Etsy shop and support me that way.

Doing it in advance - pre-election day and dirty laundry

 Today is one of the days I can pre-vote in our national election; I just hope everyone else doesn't have the same idea.  Usually, these early polling stations are quiet and calm. No crowds.  Just go, vote, and go away.  

I like doing things ahead of time like writing this blog post over a week before it goes live or trying to stay ahead with my youtube videos.  (I can't wait 'till you see the one with the apple - cute chicken awaits you at the end)

The weather is finally starting to cool down, just enough to get outside and do things.  Although we had late rains in the spring, there is less groundwater and with the intense heat earlier in the year, making this summer on the dry side of normal (but not actually a drought where I live because drought is 'less than normal' and when normal is zero... we can't technically get drought in the summer here).  Just about everything in the garden suffered but we got some great fruit harvests.  I've been careful with the water and the well has yet to run dry this year (knock on wood).

The trick to the well is not just using less, but spacing out the water use so that the well has time to recover.  I find using too little water seems to increase the time it takes for the well to refill.  I think it gets clogged up with sand or something.  

A big part of what we do here is re-using water.  Laundry is a great way to do this.  Last year I got my wringer washer out of storage and put it in the garden for my weekly wash.  It is so much fun to use and the plants love the rinse water!

This year, I've been washing things by hand as they get dirty, one or two items per day.  It turns out this method uses less water, but it does require being home each day and more physical effort than having a machine do it for me.  Both are great options.

There is something about washing clothing outside that transforms it from a chore into a meditation.  Mindfulness in laundry.  

A lot of this year has been about mindfulness and slowing down.  Accepting that I can't do what I used to be able to even a year ago.  Learning what new things I can do that I couldn't before. 

Being aware of the growing things.  Observing how the plants grow, or fail to, when the weather is unfriendly.

And planning in advance.  There's a lot of loss with this year's heat and drought, but it is also the time to plan "how can I work with nature to get more trees to grow and make a more sustainable garden?".  

Farming is about observing the now.  Remembering the past - both good and bad.  And doing it in advance to make tomorrow better than today.    

If you like this sort of thing and want to see more of it, here are some things you can do to support me on my creative journey.

- go to youtube and give me a thumbs up!  Or even a subscribe!  That would be awesome
- or pop over to my Etsy shop and support me that way.

Yarn adventures - where have I been lately?

Yes, I'm still playing with yarn.

The boring obligatory bit about being away and back now.  So glad that's over.  

Why I left blogging?

1. It feels like monologuing.  There isn't much interaction with others.  Even though I'm an extreme introvert, I do need some feedback.  There is something in me that is desperate to feel useful in this world.  That I'm not a waste of space.  I'm not cluttering up the internet with my natter.

That is why youtube is working well, I get measurable interactions.  Thumbs up.  Views.  Quite a few comments.  It's all positive reinforcement to keep on creating.  That I'm adding something of (at least) moderate quality to the internet.  For such a new channel, the feedback has been empowering!

2. Blogging used to be an individual, a keyboard, a journey.  

Then suddenly, blogging became a business.  A main source of income.  And from there, popups demanding my email address, the top (odd number) best or worst whatever.  Guests posts or a whole paid staff to produce/reproduce content.

That's not me.  

The professional blogger has a place in this world, but I don't want to be that person.

I want to be the old-style writer, where it's a curated journal of things I find nifty in this world.  

I worry that by being a blogger, I might fall into that trap.  Somehow I don't think I will.  At least I hope not.  Although I do home to put some discrete ads on here to help fund my creativity.  I'm unlikely to ask anyone for their email address - I hate writing emails.  

So I've been fulfilling my need of sharing elsewhere.  Forums get good feedback and keep the momentum going.  Here are some of the adventures I've been up to.  (hint, click "read more")

Sewing - the narrow hemmer foot

This last year I've been learning a lot about sewing.

It turns out it takes less time and money to sew my own clothes than it does to try to find something that fits both my style and body.  But sewing means I can make what I want to wear and make it fit.

I do my sewing on my Antique Singer 127 (which is now about 105 years old!).  It's such a kind machine and forgiving.  

One of my favourite feet is the narrow hemmer foot.  It's a bit tricky to use until you figure out that the fabric edge lines up with the edge of the foot before folding over.  Hard to explain, so I made a video:

If you like this sort of thing and want to see more of it, here are some things you can do to support me on my youtube journey.

- go to youtube and give me a thumbs up!  Or even a subscribe!  That would be awesome
- or pop over to my Etsy shop and support me that way.

Am I youtuber? What is that, anyway? And why?

Before the craziness, in early 2020, I decided I wanted to expand how I reach people.  I started a youtube channel.  To be safe, I started with the worlds most boring topic - paint drying.  Seriously.  Paint drying.  I had no plans that anyone would ever, ever, ever watch.  That way I wouldn't be disappointed.  

Writing the book was a blast!  I loved it!  Publishing was... not so much fun, but I learned so much about how books are made and how every tiny decision can affect every other.  Like changing the size of the book by 5mm in one direction can shave off $5 on shipping costs to Europe.  Who knew?  

It has been an interesting journey and behind it all the compulsion to share.  I don't know why I have this, but it drives me and I just want to create things.  

So I made some videos.  I liked it.  So I made some more.  And after a few videos, the guild got in touch and asked a few of us to make a video about linen for a virtual guild meeting.  

Making videos is an incredible amount of work.  1 to 4 hours of work for every minute of finished film (I hope it gets faster with experience).   A lot of work.  But I liked it.  So I set out a plan that I would make 2021 my year of learning youtube and I would make at least one video a month and then...

... I got a serious injury.  They say that it takes 2 to 4 years to recover.  It limits my online time.  And March got even worse with other events.  It's been very much getting enough of the basic chores done around the farm and resting.  A lot of resting.  

But now I'm slowly getting back into things.  I made a few videos and found out that if I want to do a lot more of this video editing, I need to save up for a new computer.  I'm also taking it easy - one or two videos a month.  Trying to focus on quality - so that with each new video, I learn a new skill that makes the video better than the last.

But it's slow this journey - an awful lot like watching paint dry.

(see how I worked that in - yeh, I doubt that will be the only one)

In other news, I'm thinking of blogging again.  Not much.  Not daily, but a bit.  Not sure if anyone is still out there or if anyone even cares about blogs anymore.  They all seem to be professional bloggers with adverts popping up at you from every direction.  (this is me fishing for comments saying "yes, do it" or if I get crickets, I know that I'm monologuing which isn't a bad thing either)

But it's that compulsion to write, to create, to make some mark in this world.  

I have a blog on my new website, crowinghen.ca but I just don't use it.  I think it's because the software is incompatible with my brain whereas blogger is lovely (and still is lovely after all this time away).  

So decisions to make with this blog too.  Do I revive it as it is?  Do I spend time and energy rebranding it and curating old content to match my current place in this life?  This blog is very old and I don't know.  I don't have to make that decision today.  

But I do need to think about income.  I have enough for everyday life, but I left my work at the same time as the injury and if I'm going to get that new computer, I need to have my creative endeavours pay for themselves.  So I've asked Google if they can put some ads on this blog - it's under review.  It's a trickle income, but every penny helps.  

 If you like this sort of thing and want to see more of it, here are some things you can do to support me on my journey.

- go to youtube and give me a thumbs up!  Or even a subscribe!  That would be awesome
- or pop over to my Etsy shop and support me that way.

Sheep to Shawl - virtual contest entry 2021 - transforming local fibre into fun!

Have I forgotten you?  Feel lonely?  Isolated?  Lost? 

Yep, that was most of 2020 for me and many of my fibre friends.  

When 2021 arrived, we thought "there must be something we can do to safely get together and help rebuild our fibre community."  And so, the Virtual Sheep to Shawl was born.

The goal is to have fun, play with yarn and local fibre, support local farmers, and most of all, help rebuild a sense of connection while creating resources to inspire future fibre folk.  That's a big goal, but a successful one I think.  

Our visual component was a video.  Actually, I made two because I'm silly that way.  A bit of an experiment to see which works best for my youtube audience.

And here is our official submission with talking and more detailed descriptions of what we are making.

They were both a lot of fun to make.  Almost as much fun as playing with my fibre friends.

If you enjoy what you see, please pop over to youtube and give a thumbs up or leave a comment or both.  This helps fuel me on my journey to becoming a video creator.  

If you like this sort of thing and want to see more of it, here are some things you can do to support me on my youtube journey.

- go to youtube and give me a thumbs up!  Or even a subscribe!  That would be awesome
- or pop over to my Etsy shop and support me that way.

Flax to Linen: The Movie

 It's been ages since I've seen you guys.  

But I haven't been idle.  

Last year, I got together with some brilliant ladies and made a video.  

To be blatantly honest, I might have bitten off more than I can chew.  I remember at one point saying "oh, sounds fun!  How hard can it be?"

yah.

The answer is "a lot harder than I could have ever imagined." but it was also more fun than I expected.  

I enjoyed it so much, I have ideas for future videos.  Some of these might take a couple of years, but I've started filming and planning and scheming... 

It's going to be a fun adventure.

If you like this sort of thing and want to see more of it, here are some things you can do to support me on my youtube journey.

- go to youtube and give me a thumbs up!  Or even a subscribe!  That would be awesome
- or pop over to my Etsy shop and support me that way.

Homegrown Linen: transforming flaxseed into fibre

Ever wondered how to grow your own yarn?

Flax gives us two harvests from one plant.  The seeds and the cloth - and yes, you can get both from the same harvest no matter what They tell you.  How do I know this?  Because I've been obsessing about flax for years and decided to find out what is really possible and what bits of advice are just superstition.

Spoiler alert: most of it is superstition.  

Flax is way more versatile than it looks.  You can get cloth from seed flax and you can get delicious seed from fibre flax.  

So now you know what I've been up to all these months.  A crazy adventure writing and creating a book.  

There are a few days left on my Kickstarter where you can pre-order the book Homegrown Linen: transforming flaxseed into fibre at a discount.  

We are hoping to have it available in stores in February.

If you want to order a book or carry the book in your store, you can find me at:

Crowing Hen Farm

Crowing Hen has arrived

I have my own website: Crowing Hen Farm 

It's all about the family farm, yarn adventures, with more being added almost daily.

find out why we call it Crowing Hen here

Larry-Cloth

This is Larry as a little lamb.

He's all grown up now, 200plus pounds of trouble, but boy oh boy, does he make marvellous yarn.

This is the yarn as it comes off the wheel.  It's lively.

I block the yarn and it looks like this.

The grey yarn is from the spot and there are about 700 yards of it.  There are a little over 3 thousand yards of white.  I wonder what I can make.

Total time from fleece to yarn - 30 hours (ten days)

blue handwoven bathroom towels.

I finally finished my first set of handwoven bathroom hand towels.

These towels are super absorbent and fast dry.  They are also very squishy!  A complete delight to use, but I must admit, I was very nervous while making them.

The warp has a random-ish pattern to it.  I wound four colours at once, then threaded them onto the loom as they came to me.  It looked good in the sample facecloths I wove, but I was nervous to see how it would look on a larger scale.

The neat thing about winding four yarns at once on a warp instead of the usual one at a time is that it goes about 20 times faster.  One doesn't have to stop and count so often, and it's just way more fun this way.  So when I had finished my blue warp, I was in the zone.  I quickly wound a second warp but this time, I used up little bits and bobs of yarn I had left over for an even more random effect.

I used 8/2 cotton set at 20epi.  I choose this draft because it has a 1/3 twill - one up, three down - which is very quick and easy on a direct tie up jack loom like mine.   As you can see, the fabric is a different colour on the other side.  I think, if it wasn't for such a colourful warp, the 'back side' would be the main side as it has a much stronger waffle look than the 'front'.

On the whole, very happy.

How I use the Ashford raddle

Getting the raddle for my Ashford Table Loom made a huge difference to how well I can warp my loom.  Before, I was having tension issues, not any longer.  It's really fast and I can have the warp spread out and ready to wind on the back beam in less time than it takes to boil the kettle (even including the time it took to take photos).

This is a 25" (on loom) wide warp in 8/2 cotton at 20epi.