Somehow I’ve lost a day – this is supposed to be the French breed challenge day, which I did yesterday. Or did I count the Rest Day as a Stage? That’s more like it. I have no interest in watching sports (playing sports, yes, watching, no) so I amn’t familiar with how the Tour de France works…
So, with a day in hand, I’d like to introduce my 3rd wheel! Peigín is a Rappard Wee Peggy which I also picked up soooo cheap as an unsold lot in a local auction house.
Like my Blaise, I’m not sure how a New Zealand wheel came to Fermanagh, but the Wee Peggys were posted all over the world – in part because they break apart for easy packaging. There’s a possible serial number, 295680, under the table:
and a very faded handwritten date under the treadle above the printed maker’s mark, of which I can only make out “4/7”:
The wheel joints tell me this Wee Peggy was made after 1976:
So, April 1976, 7, 8 or 9?
Peigín is complete apart from the brake band, which seems never to have been installed – no hooks on the mother-of-all to run the filament through, or even screw holes. Even the orifice hook is in its assigned place on the table! There’s a little damage to the wood in places, and the bobbin in the flyer has clearly struck something with force at one time, as it’s missing a chunk of flange. I have ordered a brake band kit, however, even if it arrives in time, I doubt I’ll be spinning on it during this TdF. Some of the joints are coming apart, especially on the three-part flyer. I’m going to have to carefully take it apart, clean it, feed the wood, and perhaps glue it back together where the joints have shrunk too much.
The plied black alpaca is skeined up and in the wash:
And this is the enormous batt I’m working on:
Anf a close-up of that bobbin:
Allons-squeeee…
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