Ashford tales and One Skein goodies

This week has been fun, but frustrating.
No voice, and hearing loss don't make for easy communication.

As a friend said to me today, "Do you find that people whisper to you when you have no voice?"
When I replied in the affirmative, she said "Oh that's no good for you!"

My stint at the Art Room today eneded up with me feeling frustrated with the spinning wheel we recently bought.
It is an early Ashford (Scotch tension), that seems to have been out in the rain for a bit. That is the least of its problems (and mine).

Over the past two weeks i have taken it apart, and pampered it. The big problem remains that the crankshaft is attached to the connecting rod with a bolt.

This curious assemblage has tightened up and gouged the leg. What you see above are my amendments. Here you can see the damage that has already occurred.

Not knowing how this was set up originally, I posted info on it to the Online Guild site. Several people responded, but no-one seems to have a wheel like this. I sent these images to Ashford in NZ on Thursday night, and received a reply on Friday morning.

They forwarded my e-mail to Haldane's, and yesterday morning Jim rang the Art Room before 09.30 to see how they might help.

Mary Stewart rang me at home to see if I had enough voice to talk to him, which I didn't.
We agreed that she would ring him back on my behalf when I got to the Art Room.

Before she could ring, we had three 16 year old boys come in, who are on a summer scheme.
They were having a first look at the Art Room, and ended up making pinch pots.
They were interested in the spinning wheel too; one of them asked quite a few questions.
I hope that next time they come in, I have enough voice to engage with them.

Mary had to talk to Jim on my behalf.
She knows nothing about spinning, but saw the wheel and bought it as she knew that I could spin.
I sat and whispered and nodded my replies as Mary and Jim talked.

His initial suggestion worked for a few minutes, then the nut fell off.
Jim is sending something in the post, and we wait with baited breath.

The problems are caused because the hole on the flat end of the crankshaft is threaded.
The bolt we have is only threaded for half of its length, so there is no chance to turn the bolt round.

This morning I tried spinning for a short while, but the nut kept falling off, and I have enough frustration only having a whisper for a voice.

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Meanwhile ....

I found a lovely package in the post from my One Skein pal this week. I can't remember which day, but I was just rushing out of the door when it came.

In it was the softest purple skein of alpaca:

Nestled in with it were some pink and purple stitch markers, just my colours too:

I must rush now to see the Nottingham Steam Rally parade through the streets of Long Eaton. I've had the radio on, and haven't heard the whistles yet.