Spinning, threading and cleaning

I started spinning this Blue Faced Leicester sock yarn a while ago.  It was my "fun" project while starting my level 4 homework. I was spinning it on the Mazurka at spinning nights and demos.  However I suddenly had a need to free up bobbins.  This is a 3 ply, so I needed 3 bobbins plus one to ply to.  As of the last spinning night, I was on the 3rd bobbin so it was time to hurry the project along.  I spent the weekend spinning up the rest of the roving and found time to ply it last night. 

It's superwash and has some added nylon for strength.  It's 3 ply worsted and there are unfortunately only 275 yards of it, so I'll have to spin up a bit more for security.  I like my socks with longer cuffs.   I'd weighed and divided the rovings into equal portions before spinning.  It worked a treat as I had only 1 yard left on the second bobbin and only 3 leftover on the 3rd bobbin after plying.  Sometimes my scales are a little off and it doesn't work quite so well at making equal amounts of string on each bobbin with little waste.

I've got a new project on the loom - finally.  This is wool and was quite to wind the warp thanks to finally finding a place to mount my warping board on an unused wall.  A bunch of us have used this yarn in our guild so I was able to query a friend as to the correct sett.  However I'm going to resley and rethread the heddles.  I have a stupid 4 thread float which I don't like.  It's my own fault for not bothering with a draw down, as I usually do.   However this is a blanket and a float that long will just catch and be a nuisance.

My back up sewing machine has been making an awful squealing noise.  The last time I took it in to be serviced, the guy didn't even bother to look at it.  It had the same lint and the same problems that I'd asked to be fixed so I'm a little leary about some of the repair people out there.  Being so far out of warranty, I opened it up and found this huge wad of lint hidden on one of the gears.  I got it back together but it's still making noise.  It's coming from the gear/belt area though.  I am pretty sure I can change the belts but I'm not sure about changing the gear if that's what it needs.

 This old girl makes pretty decent button holes with a minimum of set up and fuss so I hope I can keep her going.  My other machines makes great stitches, but takes so much fussing to make a button hole that even a great button hole is not worth the effort when compared to the back up.