all you need are …

5 things lying around the house to fix a sad spinning wheel.

Click through to flickr for the detailed notes on the picture but basically, you need:

1. some scrap fabric.
2. a screw driver
3. hole punch(es)
4. scissors
5. a hot glue stick. [you do not need the hot glue gun]

To fix the brake band (temporarily):
Take old brake band and trace onto doubled fabric. Cut out. Eyeball where holes should go and punch.
Screw into place.
Please note this is a very temporary fix. The stronger your fabric the more durable the fix. If you can reinforce the holes, more power to you. Ideally you cut out some leather and punch the holes and stuff but I don’t happen to have leather lying around.

To fix Footman to Treadle Connector (temporarily):
Unscrew old assembly. Disconnect footman from wheel* carefully (ask me how I know this). Pull the ring back first.
Carefully ream out as much of the old “stuff” as you can. take glue stick and place in the cavity. Screw into place. Test by pulling on it. Line it up on the wheel and screw into treadle. Practice treadling (no bobbin/fibre yet) slowly at first. This seems a little more permanent than my brake band fix but I’m not really sure how long it will last. Thankfully I can get glue sticks at the 99¢ store.

note: you can break off one of the footman-wheel connector thingees and it’ll still attach fine to the wheel.

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Ok. In an effort to prove to the world (and my husband) that I am capable of writing and talking about more than just fibrey stuff, here are two items (ok three, but I assume you have the third by now, even though my webstats tell me otherwise).

Required:
Firefox. My stats tell me that about half of you are viewing this site with Internet Explorer. Go get firefox please. If you are at work, try to convince your IT staff to install it firm/office/site/company wide. It’s the browser of choice for my clients.

Did you know you can add on (also known as extensions) to Firefox? Instructions how are here.

I’m going to recommend first greasemonkey. Go check it out. Greasemonkey itself can be extended (which is the point). I have a neat script which lets me know which local nyc bookstores *and* nypl *and* bpl carry a book while browsing at Amazon (get it here).

Do you use gmail? Check out better gmail. I just started using it mostly for the filter assistant because I wanted a one click filter creation from the message I was reading. With this I’ve sorted much of my main gmail account out and am currently down to 641 messages in the inbox. Getting there!

Please note that these technology tips are for your information. I am not planning on supporting your installation of them unless you are related to me by blood, marriage (though not distantly related), or have entered into an agreement with me of some sort. Proceed at your own risk.

• Category: tools
• Tag: spin