Kevin Olson

YouTube user Michygoss has used a Skymule ropeway system to lower construction supplies from the road landing to her cliff top cabin build site.  She has some videos on her channel on installation, use and rejiggering of the setup.  At the moment, I think she has taken it down.

The manufacturer's website is here:
https://www.wyssenseilbahnen.com/en/plantation-cableway-small-cableway/plantation-cableway-skymule/

They also make a heavier duty ropeway system for construction (https://www.wyssenseilbahnen.com/en/construction-skyline-cranes/), but this one is intended for lighter use (agricultural), probably more appropriate to small scale landholder use.

I don't have one, and haven't used one, but made a mental note that it looked like a handy gizmo for Michele, and my brother has a lot of sidehill land, so it might be helpful for him, too.  I would think it could be set up pretty easily with a capstan winch for the haulback line.

Carla Burke wrote:

Mine (1 small 1a but larger) are pretty much identical to this one, and the hooks are essentially proportioned the same. I was at first a tad frustrated by not being able to get more size options, then in using them, realized they were fine as they were and more sizes would just be more fiddly, while not necessarily improving the results:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/397513023945

They came with rubber bands, but the frame just cut right through those, the first time I tried to use them. A few minutes with a metal file to smooth out the edges is very helpful. And I bought some appropriately sized, covered hair ties, for better protection of the fabric in repairing.

Thanks for the recommendation/sanity check.  And for the reminder to check the edges of the stamping for burrs and flash.

Carla Burke wrote:Interesting ideas! I think the rotating needle bar would need to be awfully small, which in turn (heehee) could make it pretty delicate and prone to breakage. But having & using a speed loom, I can attest, on large projects, a tiny needle *could* make the job much easier. On small projects however, I think it would be too fiddly for me to mess with.

Yes, I suspect that's true, but sometimes I can barely contain my impulse to needlessly complicate what is already a perfectly acceptable solution to a problem!  Given that most darning jobs are a couple of inches/few centimeters wide, the juice probably isn't worth the squeeze.  Picking through the warp threads with a darning needle shuttle is simple enough, in this case.

I presently need to mend the elbow of a shirt (well, more jobs that that are in the queue, but it needs urgent attention - a stitch in time, etc.).  I may darn it, or I may try to do something more akin to invisible mending (but visible, because I don't have a swatch to use to effect the repair, and the shirt is also showing significant wear elsewhere, so such fanciness as invisible mending is unwarranted, but it still might be a good test bed on which to hone my skills - not much downside risk attends such a venture).  I'll probably tackle this before any Speedweve style darning loom would arrive in my edge-of-nowhere location, but I think I'll still order one to add to the quiver.

To that end, does anyone have a recommendation on the minimum or maximum number of hooks (i.e. widths) which are practical for general mending use?

Do these all generally have a similar gauge/spacing of hooks, irrespective of manufacturer?

Are the "extended play" obround platforms helpful/functional (e.g. does the elastic band - or twine, once the elastic perishes - secure the cloth well enough along the side of the oval)?  I can imagine that a long tear might be more easily mended with the long version.  I've seen that some of these kits offer both round and extended platforms, or a choice of either one, from new, and some makes offer the extended length platform as a separate item.

Similarly, I noticed that some of these have a "handle" which can socket into the back of the platform.  Has anyone found this to be useful, and under what circumstances?

Has anyone tried to make a DIY Speedweve (maybe using spare knitting machine hooks, or bending hooks out of high tensile fence wire, or whatever)?  I can imagine a couple of approaches to this which might be workable.

I also wanted to thank the OP for the intro to a Speedweve mending loom.  I'd had no prior acquaintance.  Where was one of these things when I was a kid and my mother was teaching me to mend and darn?  I mostly had a burned out light bulb, over which to work.  Just having the rubber band clamping do-hickey to keep the fabric taut and flat would have been a godsend!

Now, the engineer in me is contemplating how to make a version a bit more like a rigid heddle loom, which would more easily allow warp manipulation for weaves other than straight tabby weaves.  Maybe two or more lengths of hooks?  I guess there are always lease sticks.  Maybe there's a version of Matteo Salusso's tubular rigid heddle which would work, or one of the sort having a square cross-section bar heddle and kerfed slots for the warps on alternating diagonals of the section.  I don't recall the name of the second sort (old age creeping up?), but rotating the heddle back and forth by 90 degrees alternately raises and lowers the warps to for sheds.

On edit: maybe this is just a "heddle bar".  A good write-up on making a wooden one can be found here:
https://blog.vintagetoolpatch.com/2025/05/25/loom-heddle.html

Whether that makes any sense for a darning loom, that's another question entirely!

Another rabbit hole, down which to fall!

Carla Burke wrote:Nicely done, Kevin!

Thanks for your vote of confidence!

If nothing else, it did provide a good break between snow scooping, roof shoveling and ice dam chipping spells on Saturday (a change is as good as a rest), and kept me sociably awake yesterday evening after a long day of physical labor.

I did try a couple of other approaches to this mending job, including half-hitching each pair of warp strands to its neighboring strands (using a latch hook - not very secure, and left a fringe) in sequence, and square knotting adjacent warp strands together to secure the weft (which would have left a fringe - also using the latch hook, because the strands were too short to use fingers), but I eventually settled on this approach.  I think it will be more secure in the long run, a bit tidier and more workman like, and there was enough looseness in the weave to facilitate it.

I don't know if I'll try to use my old Standard Rotary sewing machine (usually reserved for abusive jobs like mending backpacking tents, backpacks and work pants), or if I'll try to use a Speedy Stitcher (a lock stitch sewing awl - usually used for mending boots, heavy tarps or tents, and the like) when I turn the edge.  Double needle by hand is another possibility, since the pack of Boye yarn needles I had laying around have a pair of each size of needle.  I don't think I have a ball ended needle for either the sewing machine or the Speedy Stitchers (I have a dueling brace, one bought new, the other found cheaply at a used tool store).  So, maybe the double needle technique will be best.

Whichever method I choose, I'll post a follow-up.  Not that what I do is the very paragon of virtue (as I said, I'm not a fiber arts guy), but it may  - at the very least - give someone else an idea of what they don't wish to do!

This seems like the right place for this little foray into mending - definitely a "not clothes" mending project.

One of our cotton bathroom rugs (probably from Walmart or Target or some other price-conscious outlet) had begun to fray badly on the end.  This is because:  the warps were simply cut (but not worked in); after which, the end was turned under and sewn, with a single run of lock stitch.  Not so robust, even if these rugs only get shaken out and washed (air dried), but never vacuumed with the carpet attachment.

So, I worked the (doubled) warp strands back in, under 5 weft shots.  I pulled the half of them that would have been on the "right" or show side to the back.  I plan to turn the end and stitch it down to contain the warp ends.

As you can probably see, the ends were too short to thread before passing the yarn needle under the wefts, so I had to fish the needle part way through, then thread the warps through the eye.  I used a bared "twistie" wire (bread bag twist) to make a needle threader to get the warp yarns through the eye (barely discernible in a couple of the pics).  For those warps which were on the right side, I had to repeat the process of post-threading the needle to pull them through to the back.

It's not yet turned and stitched, and I may need to do something with the selvedge warps, but I did mock up the finished product by "pinning" it with the yarn needle as a quick test, and I think I can manage the loose ends.  But that will need to wait for another day, since it's half past 11 and I spent a good bit of the day cleaning snow off roofs, some am fairly well tuckered out.  I think it's OK to use in the AM.

I'm not a fiber arts guy, per se, but needs must!

Be aware, there are a couple of pages missing from the scan (there's only one page between numbered pages 90 and 94, but I can't tell which 2 page numbers are AWOL).  I would assume this was merely an oversight (stuck together pages or whatever) when the scan was made and the PDF compiled.

If ever I come across a paper copy, I'll scan the pages which are MIA and post them.  They may be relevant to the "Modifications" section (which includes cook stoves), but I infer that they may more likely pertain to installation, including (I would imagine) things like structural support and setbacks.  Since these details are likely to be generally relevant, irrespective of what sort of masonry heater one constructs, I think the missing pages should be publicly available.  I thought I'd found a copy at a reasonable price on Amazon, but the sale was cancelled after the transaction was completed, so I assume either someone beat me to the punch on another sale platform (or bricks-n-mortar) or someone's inventory system showed a non-existent book.  Either way, I'll keep looking.  I'm old fashioned, but I really do prefer a dead trees book to the digital sort.  Unfortunately, it seems that the preponderance of stuff I am looking for is only available digitally.

I guess could also ping Michele (Albie's partner) from his website and ask her.  She may be able to help with the missing pages.  Maybe I'll do that, and post up any positive updates.

OK, back to snow removal and roof clearing (we are on pace for a record year, here)...

For any who are interested, a PDF of "Finnish Fireplaces" by Heikki Hyytiainen and Albie Barden (with translation by Aila Rapeli) is available for free download from Albie Barden's (of Maine Wood Heat) blog site:
https://www.albiebarden.com/albie-bardens-blog


This book has been long out of print and has had very limited availability on the used market from the usual suspects.

"Finnish Fireplaces" is a survey of historic and modern (as of the 1980s, that is!) Finnish masonry heaters, most of which feature some form of fireplace, whether open or with operable doors.  Some are of the contraflow design, others merely having smoke chambers (and heat accumulators) above the fireboxes.  Some designs shown also offer black ovens or cook tops, and a couple of cook stove designs are reminiscent of the Cabin Stove from Firespeaking or Matt Walker's cook stoves.

Even if you are sold on the rockety type of masonry stoves, this is a good reference (though I am still nosing through it, so may be offering a hasty endorsement).

Many thanks to Albie for making this difficult-to-find reference available!

There is a book - "God Speed the Plow", perhaps? something like that - which has some interesting information on this line of inquiry.

The cable plowing rigs - Fowler was a well known brand - was a short lived sideline in this story which allowed very heavy steam engines to till smaller fields.  The "balance plows" used for this had a set of shares for each direction, and were steerable.  The nearest application of something like this I've seen in modern times is the use of winch tractors in steep slope viticulture operations.  The tractor can inch along the top of the vineyard from one row to the next (which run up-and-down the slope), then winch up the harvest.  As the old saw goes "vines love the hills".

The nearly ubiquitous (in Europe) two-wheeled tractors are a fascinating solution for small, mixed agriculture operations.  American brands such as Gravely, Bolens and Simplicity were pretty common, especially in the post WWII boom, with marketing targeted at "sundown farmers", but the real workhorses were and still are the European makes: Aebi, Holder, Pasquali, Ferrari, Carraro, Grillo and of course BCS.  And a bunch of others I can't remember at the moment.

I had a David Bradley two-wheeled walking tractor with several implements, but sold it to someone with small acreage, to which it was better suited.  More than once, I've kicked myself that I didn't hang on to it, but I'm sure they put it to better use than I would have done in these intervening years.  I do still have an Ariens Model B, in need of some love, with which I may eventually get around to doing something.

I've occasionally seen a BCS with a blown engine on FB Marketplace or CL.  Once, there was one with a "Chonda" (Chinese Honda replica) repower, quite reasonably priced.  But, I don't really need one at the moment.  Or maybe ever.  Even if I do acquire small ag acreage.  But, they are pretty slick.

I have kicked around using old gear drive Cub Cadet parts to cobble up a version of these walking tractors.  I think it would be possible, with some fabrication and machining, to make a reasonable facsimile of these European Lego system tractors, including driven axle trailers for firewood fetching and the like.  But, like a lot of my projects, this one is in the "not yet started" category!

All that being said, the Amish seem to do a lot better financially than most farmers who aren't doing "big ag".  So, for conventional - if antiquated - farming, meat power still seems to be very viable.  And, for a garden, even a big garden, the amount of mechanization actually needed, once established, seems to drop precipitously for someone of sound body.

William Bronson wrote:Kevin, I love those stoves!
Home heating that produces charcoal is my jam!
This video introduced me to the product:

Yes, this one "set the hook" for me, but what "reeled me in" was his conversion of a wood burning cook stove to a pellet gasifier:



There are a zillion old cook stoves around my neck of the woods.  Conversion to a cleaner and more efficient combustion method seems worthwhile, if only from the vantage of reduction of fire hazard.

I don't know that Alex's thermal mass heaters are really intended to produce charcoal.  But, since both the primary and secondary draft controls are within the operator's purview (throttle and mixture), tailoring combustion toward residual charcoal should be possible.