Steam Engines, Chickens, a Band Organ, & Knitting

If you hadn't figured it out from this post or maybe this one, I love steam engines, and I usually go to the local antique engine and tractor show every year, to see what turns up.

This year, they had a pair of small steam traction engines sawing logs. Here's the first:Here's the second engine:And a view of the sawmill they were running between them:
Later in the day, they had turned the first one around, and I had to take a picture of that shiny blue paint.
Those were the little small engines, but there were bigger ones, too:
I love machinery where I can follow the logic and see how it works. And I love seeing it all so lovingly tended and kept in working order, instead of used and tossed out for next month's model.

A week later, we were off to the county fair, so I could practice my Occupation (see my Profile).


Of course, if there's anything geeky around (more geeky than figuring out the motion controls on the rides), I'll find it. I heard music and followed it to this Stinson Band Organ:Both sides of the trailer were open, so you could see the organ, and in back, the MIDI roll that controls the instruments. It was the coolest thing.

And did I promise knitting? Okay. Knitting.

My order came from Martinas Bastel- & Hobbykiste.I bought Spitzenstrickerei: Schöne Decken, ISBN-13: 978-3-89798-289-5 (five huge charts of seven Herbert Niebling designs) and Kunststricken: Decken, Garnituren, Spitzen (Bände 408 und 760), ISBN-13: 978-3-89798-269-7, reprinted this year by BuchVerlag für die Frau.

If you're not comfortable ordering direct from Germany, sometimes they show up on Powell's Books website. Powell's charges the Euro price at the current exchange rate, plus an import fee, currently $3 plus $4.50 per item.

Either way, the total price including overseas shipping ends up being about half what I've seen on other websites.

Someone reminded me that I had some older cones of size 30 cotton thread, and I pulled those out of the drawer to see what kind of shape they were in.

One was a 3000-yard cone, but it was brownish and spotted on the outside, so I went looking for a little pattern, 50 rounds or so, to use up the icky cotton on the outside and see how it knitted up.

I picked the small one on the upper left. (It's pattern 12, the upper photo on page 8, Fig. 28 if you have Bände 760.)

Nieblings always seem to have something I've never done in each one.This one has twelve yarnovers in a row to make those big holes. Ulp.

I don't know how that's going to block out, but I'll find out soon, as I only have a round or two left.