When my Grandma was retiring this past winter she needed to empty out her shop. It had a storage area full of supplies that had been donated to her. There was fabric, yarn, machinery, etc. All in addition to the supplies that she had purchased over her 10 years of business, as well as machinery, equipment, etc., that she brought into the business from her old places of employment.
We are working away, visiting and chatting while we sort and stuff and move things into my vehicle. One of the things that she wanted me to take was a Brother brand knitting machine + ribbing bed. Since I was trained on a Singer brand machine I don’t know heads or tails of the Brother’s settings, but I do know where to get my hands on a PDF of the manuals. If nothing else I’ll knit plain stockinette on the bed and save my other machine some wear and tear. So I graciously thank her for entrusting it to me. Then the babe is opened up, checked to ensure that it is prepared for travel, has the minimum parts to functions as a single bed, and closed up again.
That brings us to today.
Grandma came by to visit and said that she had a “box” for me of things for the Brother machine. Okay, thinks I, it’s probably just a few bits. Oh dearie was I wrong.
I was unprepared
This big old box is placed gently on the living room table, and I take a peek inside. There are single sheets of paper, books of printed out documents. A whole think stonking 2 inch binder. Surely the manual is hidden in one of these (although I already have the PDF on hand). There is a punch card maker, and a tin full of who knows what. How does a person start to categorize and put this away?
Archival Techniques
During one of my employment contracts I was assigned to research archival techniques. To discover the logic of their process, and then process the archive of the charity. The business had lots of files, folders, and loose papers in random boxes that were collected during the business’ past 40 years. People dropped off their personal records as a contribution, often without leaving their name or contact info with said boxes. It was a mess. After researching and later confirming with an archivist, the basic process looks like this:
Pick everything up, peruse the contents, document what was in each box, put the information in a spreadsheet, and “put that thing back where it came from, or so help me!” (Monsters Inc).
aka learn what the contents are, but don’t disturb things until you understand what this system is and why this system is in place. Don’t assume that you know how these people thought as they were documenting things.
While performing the process myself I learned a few things
Test out several spreadsheet styles early. Changing all of the data organization from five boxes (out of many) is brutal, and essentially requires restarting.
Expect to see duplicate copies of documents mixed into the various folders and binders. Leave them there.
If an outside contribution comes in that is already neatly organized documents, then there is no reason to mess with it. Do NOT separate an already complete logic system!
Try to understand the scope in time that you are working with. Dealing with a 40+ year project has different challenges from dealing with one that is approximately 10 years long.
Older decades think differently. The older a project’s starting date is, the more you must expect a different logic system.
Find someone living to talk to you about those times, write down their stories, and ask them questions about the documents that you find. Write this list during the initial purview of the documents, and pare it down later.
Writing down stories about the project from living records is a whole separate project onto itself.
If you can digitize photos, then do so.
Pick it up,
Open the book, understand the general contents, and put it down. There were several loose papers. All were about purchasing Brother machines, or advertisements for them. Those stay together. There are two duotangs that are full of printed off pages from books. Their labels say that it’s a part 1 and two for Fair Isle knitting, so they stick together. Another book about punch card patterns for Fair Isle is beside them, so all three should stick together. IF there are books about punch cards then the odds of finding punch cards is high. I haven’t seen the punch cards yet, so I’ll need to keep an eye out for those. The Brother punch cards are probably different from Singer punch cards, so I might be watching for a different shape entirely.
There is another collection of books in a bag. Those are staying together, easy. Next is the big binder. Inside is another folder with knitting instructions. It seems this entire binder is full of directions for knitting garments on the machine. Sweet. I can generate my own with Garment Designer, but this is a trove of fashion history, pattern design, and knitting language knowledge. Knowing that, I very carefully close the book to ensure that none of these nearly pristine papers get kinked by my foolish fingers.
What about the tools?
We’ve got:
x2 handy punch, one out of the box in a pink bag with other… stuff.
a small plastic box
a ribber carriage
another carriage. Maybe a lace carriage? An intarsia carriage?
the cookie tin, which is very heavy.
one weird plastic tower, wrapped in yellow yarn
a long white comb with hooked teeth (a cast on comb, maybe?)
a bag o’ general tools and x2 claw weights
a stray ribber weight, very lonely
the punch cards, in a pink bag
the manuals, bent almost 90 degrees inside of the smaller plastic bin.
Firstly, I remove the manuals and open them. They are bent in a 90 degree curve. Flickering through the pages and attempting to read them is challenging. There is no way that someone intentionally left these books in this state. Their current state makes them almost unusable, so I grab two big encyclopedia books (about birds and bonsai) and weigh those manuals down flat. They will stay that way for a few days. Next, the general bag of tools. I align all of the long tools so they fit more compactly, and place the claw weights neatly inside. Next is that plastic container, full of more tools, and sewing oil. What? Oh, I saw this in a picture.
This is the “tool box” for the brother machines. The pictures that I saw also had a smaller carriage in the machine’s lid, so that must be where the mysterious carriage is supposed to be. I’m still not certain what it is for, but that’s not terribly important right now.
Next is the punches. One is in it’s own box, nice and neat. The other is in a pink bag, loose and floating with a whole mess of stuff. I tuck it and the instructions back inside the box, leaving that in the punk bag with the other bits, since I am not certain what they are for.
I’ve also got that big cookie tin, which is full of ribber weights and clamps for the machine. I’ve got that stray weight, and it fits in the tin. The lid goes back on, and that goes back into the big tub.
Put That Back Where it Came From…
Now that things have been perused, placed together, and the tools are compressed. It is time to “put that thing back where it came from.” An important note here is to ensure that the repacking process does not damage any of the “archive’s” contents. How did you find these things? Were they damaged? If you put them back will they continue to accumulate damage? How can you minimize damage?
If possible, lay papers flat.
If not returning things chronologically, try to sort by weight (heaviest on the bottom).
The carriages need to be stored so that there is nothing on the inner mechanisms (the guts) or the brushes, disks, etc, on the machine arm.
Most things went back where they came from, albeit compressed, made whole, or just laid flat. Now I know what is in there, and have a better idea of how to use that treasure trove.
Storage
Papers and fabric need similar conditions for storage. Specifically away from sunlight, and in a dry place. Temperature is not a huge deal, but cool places can attract moisture. Cold and damp attracts bugs. Then you have holes in your stuff. I find that paper is perfectly happy inside of a house in a shady corner. The boxes can be made of cardboard, which will have the insides be the same ambient humidity as the rest of the house. Alternatively, storage in a plastic container is also acceptable, but one should put some desiccant beads in alongside the papers to absorb moisture.
I hope that this helps you if you ever stumble upon mysterious machine parts.