This is the start of the jumper I aborted last night. As you can see, some major losses of concentration in terms of row count, though this is the better end of the garment (despite the unintentional row of yellow stitches) as it has no holes. Having pulled it off the needles I did a count of skeins of the cream wool and concluded that after all I would use it for an aran jumper. As you can see, the colours work fairly well, albeit being a bit summery, but I will leave it till I am feeling more patient I think. The Aran will keep me busy in the mean time.

Last time I knitted this pattern I did it in a mid-steely blue and wore it for years. This time it will be cream like an aran is supposed to be. The wool has an unusual twist which will add further texture to it - I know when I knit it in stocking stitch one side of each stitch is slightly raised, giving a shadow effect, so it will be interesting to see how it turns out.

Today I was at the History Room again, if a little late in arriving as I had a cottage to deal with. I brought the spinning wheel down to the light to see if I could work out why it was not working properly. The peddle was not attached at any point, so that was soon worked out with the aid of a couple of screw drivers. There was a short length of leather hinging that to the wheel drive and that was perished. Once I finally got it into the appropriate slot and a screw through it, it snapped on the first attempt to turn the wheel (which moves freely). So I will have to see if I can source another bit of leather locally (plenty of saddlers around the place). But the main problem lies in the absence of an upright that supports the bobbin. This is a turned piece and looks as if it also should have some hardware on it to socket the thingy that holds the bobbin. That could be trickier. I have taken photos and will see if I can track down the manufacturer to find out if they carry spares (it is only a 1970s wheel, so they probably still carry the parts with any luck - it's not like the design changes that radically). It also needs new cord to transfer the movement of the wheel to the bobbin, but that should be pretty easy to find locally as well. It was an interesting exercise as I have never examined a wheel quite so closely before and I enjoy working out how things work, so a useful fiddling exercise.