That feels better.  Starting something new just seems to have righted the world and I feel better for it.  Plus this last few days, even though it is hotter this last week than it has been all summer, the heat isn't killing me the way it has for the last few years.  I think it is the ginger.  So long as I do that, things go well.  Ginger is obviously affecting my mental health, hahahaha

Anyway, I sat knitting in the morning yesterday looking at my spinning wheels.  And suddenly the brake band and the rest of the brake assembly from the S51 were off the wheel.   

I have had this wheel for a while now, and I have never liked the way it was set up for the brakes.  The heavy, stiff leather gave me two brake tensions, all or none.  I learned to spin on a Babe wheel and its brake was a soft strip of leather over the flyer end, just as this is with velcro to attach it and to set how tight the leather should press on the flyer.  I copied that set up for this wheel and gave it a spin to see how it felt.

Close to what I was looking for but not quite right.  I could not go thinner than this fairly chunky single because the fibre still wanted to yank from my hands.  I only got this by treadling so slowly that each round was pretty much a restart.  It wasn't making for happy spinning.    

The drive band is far too tight. 

I added about three inches and am going to give it a run and see if it is right. I am ashamed to say that I did not pull out the cracked drive bands to use as a measure for length.  I did not think of that till I was sitting here writing.  As Charles Leclerc said once said after a pretty easy to avoid crash "I am stupid, I am stupid".  But I will check now and adjust to that length.  So far as I recall, it worked fine with the old bands before the footman attachment broke. 

While I had the velcro handy, I also made a wee adaptation that I came up with for all my wheels.   I added a small piece of velcro close to the orfice to tuck the fibre onto, to hold it in place when I have to take a spinning break.  

The only other thing I really need to get organized is a place to put all the spinning detritus, the bits that are spun to tight that I tear off when the sinlge breaks, or the bits of straw that are still in the fibre(Yes, even in this really high quality stuff ).  Since I have been spinning again, these bits have no home and they are all over the place,  kitchen bathroom, stuck to the bottom of my feet, etc, but the worst is that they occasionally wrap around my chair wheels.  That is the fastest way to kill a set of wheels known to mankind. I need a can or tuck bag or something to tuck it into where the fluff won't fall out of like it falls off the table edge. 

And here it is, midday. I could be upset that I am still writing the blog at midday but writing today means my laundry, in the ensuite off my bedroom/study, has not had any downtime and I am now done with my personal laundry.  This is big news because even the sweaters that needed washing are washed!  Huge plus going into the weekend.

I digress.  The weekend looks to be full of joy. Here endeth the post.