of hacks and trade offs

found this in the kitchen section at ikea and thought it would work for something i saw at a weaving studio in kyoto.theirs is wood, beautifully handmade  with vertical rods . this is mass produced and metal. however, it holds the bobbins well enough. a lot more efficient than having them rolling around on the castle of the loom.

this one is a hack of a hack. 

i was using plastic film cans, remember those?-

but they were on their last leg.

these are fishing weights 

found casually strolling in villaviciosa.

they are around 20 grams each, more than enough

to weight down broken threads.

neki desu

 

little hacks

when you have 106 needles to hand knit and your brain goes  DUH i can do 2 at once, even three but that gets complicated. (￣ω￣ )

when you have 550 rows and the fabric is trailing on the floor and there are 550 more passes to go. note the hand knitting needle keeping the folded fabric in place 

neki desu 

 

up and running

took my time, one step a day until everything was in place.

as with other things in life, the first time is daunting. did the soldering without trembling hands.

now back to the machine and starting the show. feels great bcse the rains are coming and it means indoor time. relief.

neki desu 

 

an unplanned event

this my dears is a blown capacitor.

happily knitting away when there was smoke, smell and a frying sound: a multimedia festival.

not the first time that's happened. in 2015 i experienced it for the first time. the good news is that i learned to solder  and now i am not daunted by it.

discovered however that i need a capacitor of another kind besides the ones i have and i'm waiting for a response of an online place surprise surprise in northern spain not barcelona nor madrid .

 taking the job easy, no rush, watching a lot of j doramas to keep up my japanese and my mind entertained while i wait.

what i learned:

• that you can't keep the machine on and idle. capacitors and fuses blow.
• that when you ask a question in a forum people answer what they want  not what you asked⋋__⋌
• that there's a LOT of reading comprehension issues (╯︵╰,)

neki desu 

 

proof of concept

have been thinking to come up with ways to warp sectionally with warp chains. don't want to buy a warping wheel as i dont have the space for one and it also doesn't fit in the downsizing frame of mind.

here's what ive come up with

• tie the end loop to the section cord and bring the chain to the middle,
• fix the cross sticks with the cross  and thread the reed.
•  pass the chain all the way to the front and put the weights.(mind you this is easier with 4- 5 mts long warps.)
• fix the raddle and separate in bouts

 

pass them through the tension box dents

start winding

 the blessing of this system is  that you dont get twisted yarns hence almost no breakage,

the rade off is that it's somewhat slow.but weaving is about time isn't it?

if you need more info feel free to comment.

neki desu 

 

proof of hack

still has to be perfected, but it works.the silk is so fine it's given me stress hives😩

taking it very slow ,by the end of the week it will be done,then on to threading and reeding. two more weeks?

neki desu 

 

the ultimate raddle

found these knitting looms( would you believe the name?) at the chinese euro store.removed the pins from the other side, made a hole to connect both and i have a raddle spaced at 2 cms with tall enough pins to avoid disasters.

just need to find a 5-10 cms wide piece of wood for a base attach the raddle to it and life is good.

if you happen to have a friend with a 3d printer perhaps you can come up with a neater hack.

neki desu

 

as a friend says

it all takes 10 years.redoing the blog from the photobucket issue found a post from 05 where there were talks of moving to oviedo.the good news is that it finally happened, never mind the rest.

my sectional set up with some more hacks.husband san gets frantic with my hacking mentality. the ever architect.

                                                                                                         

this puppy's domesticated.resting for a while because i want/need to sew .

neki desu

wild imaginings

wouldn't this be great for my table loom? now i only need to add a lifting mechanism.

have a good weekend.




neki desu

of hacks ii

the new uprights have already been installed- doing cartwheels ＼（＾▽＾）／

the new underslung beater was put in place by lil ol me, no big deal.

the new uprights house the sectional beam and an extra warp beam. lots of space for warps.

then yesterday i noticed that i was missing the plastic stud covering  solenoid rod number three. yes, the rods that when fired push forward touching the knife thus getting lifted.

 i had some pegs from the dobby chain lying around. dark colored hard plastic, longer than the original, but hackable. used the soldeting iron to make the hole to fit the rod and the pyrography tool to melt it to size and cut it.whew! then came some sanding and finally the stud is in place.

now i need to gather courage and turn on the loom electronics aka loom box to see if it survived the move, then check if the stud hack works. guess who's having champagne tonight?

the carpenter is a young guy and he's my new best friend.i love people with intellectual curiosity and he had me explain how the loom worked and asked intelligent questions.
so i showed him  my white yarns, then some of the dyed ones and my japanese shuttles.he really enjoyed the craftsmanship of the shuttles.
then he asked to see some of my work. i was in heaven!
 as he was leaving he noticed our art nouveau, actually more secessionen, armoire which i use as china closet.again curiosity and questions.it was such a refreshing visit.
and the loom looks great!☆ *(＾∇＾)*☆

neki desu

and there was one

loom parts. the hack was re designed for simplicity's sake. taking both uprights to the carpenter to be duplicated.these in turn will be bolted to the horizontals that serve as "feet" one of the beams needs to be set up with the sectional kit. guess summer will still find it as is.the carpenter is awol.

neki desu

sleeve, black and white

'nother chapter from the frugal knitter. a lo tech hack using a knitted sample as a cone sleeve.

now i can use all those industrial cones without them doing the boogaloo on the winder.

neki desu

back adjustment

you have already sewn your muslin and find the upper back is tight.

what to do? messing around with the armscye is asking for problems because you'll need to adjust the sleeve and in my book any sleeve adjustment,length excepted, spells trouble.

 this adjustment keeps the armscye intact while adding some extra room to the back.

mark a line more or less halfway in the armscye to the center back then cut taking care not to cut through the armscye.

spread the pattern  2-3 cms.

put a piece of paper under the slash and tape it to the pattern.

there you have it! and no fussing with the sleeve.

you can now make another muslin or ignore this step and cut your fabric.

i do recommend as much as i dislike it, making another muslin.

neki desu

new pcb

it's here! now i need to look for someone to do the soldering for me. been there and don't want to go back.

patience brings rewards; i'll be in business soon  ( ^▽^  )

neki desu

one day at a time

this is the motherboard,looks pretty scary oi? might as well change the battery because it will eventually go.

this whole repair has proven to be very stressful and it's taking much longer than expected. not as easy peasy as the tutorials indicate.

and still the baby won't turn on. luckily i located a power board, ordered it  and am waiting  to get it. if i can't manage to turn on the baby, i'll have someone come and install the board.

i can hear you chuckle!! ಠ-ಠ

today is really windy and awful so i can't take my walk.will use that time for something entertaining. i need entertainment therapy.

neki desu

of hacks

this is my warping station until i go back to japan and get a warping doramu aka drum.

this is the current hack to keep the yarns in order.

i got it in the electronics shop and it's used in those boards full of little holes, whatever their name is.

the guys at the shop are still laughing when i told them what i wanted it for. didn't mention the rubber bands because they suggested soldering. yeah,right.

not to mention the alligator clamps for controlling the draw in in the warp （*▽*）

downloaded the arduino drivers, but installed them without having the board plugged in. DUH!

trash them and redownload. but first back to the shop to get a usb cable.

think i'm going ask to become a shareholder.

neki desu

newest craze

went inside my k machine ﾟДﾟscary! all seemed fine except for the blown fuse whose change did not alter the fact that the machine still won't turn on.

have posted in all the forums i have access asking for advice. feel like a spammer （´＿｀）

 the other fuses that out of prevention were

 changed. looking into this hack to see if my predicament gets solved.

meanwhile something to lift the spirits.

neki desu

my future

i'm teaching myself a few things.

https://opensourcehardwaregroup.com/





neki desu

jamming

thanks to this vid i was spared of buying a new lace carriage. a simple hack with a magnet  made the non electronic lace carriage from the other machine talk to the electronic machine.

 now i have other problems to solve the lace carriage gets jammed going left to right, but works well going right to left.    ﾟДﾟ
it also happens with the proper carriage so it has to be something related to the needle bed.
as a last resource i will have to go inside the machine ﾟДﾟ






neki desu