Of Wheels and Wools
Jonathan >
As Autumn shows its colours and the winds are from the cold north, our thoughts return to indoor work – of wheels and wools.
As the Hebridean Woolshed‘s Spinning Wheel Engineer in Residence, I love to find the time to feel my way around every piece of equipment, cleaning, adjusting, replacing, oiling. Bearings and bushes. Belts and bands. Cranks and connecting rods. Springs and screws. And of course there’s the wood – above all the wood.
Denise kept spinning full speed ahead, making good the empty pigeon-hole for Uist Landscapes – Atlantic, up the garden in the Hebridean Woolshed‘s garden shop. I got a spare wheel ready, and when she stopped for coffee and cake, I swapped wheels, transferring the work-in-progress bobbins, and adjusting the tensions of drive and brake bands to match those on the wheel I’d taken away.
Returning to work, Denise took great delight in detailing the many deficiencies of my tactical manoeuvres!
And now I must get back to work on my own line of ‘self-coloured’ (wool self-coloured by the sheep themselves!), handspun in marls and variegations. There’s customers for whom these colours sum up their life-long love of all things woolly.
English
Basque
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Portuguese
Scottish Gaelic
Spanish
Welsh
I find this fascinating. And such beautiful colours – I love those blues!
What an industrious pair you two are!
My first wheel was an old rickity Traditional and now I spin on a Traveller or a walking wheel. Love the view and light.
D > A Great Wheel? Oh, that’s wonderful. I should think you have a lot of control. I’ve always been rather intrigued by these, but it has been difficult to afford the expense, space and time on what would be for me a collector’s luxury, rather than an rationally justifiable necessity. But who knows, our priorities are now changing …
What a beautiful spot you have for spinning! I can just about hear the wheels hum and smell the lanolin from the warm wool!
D > We need plenty of light for spinning – especially important in winter.
Denise, I saw your comment about the arthritis in your feet. Majacraft is a wheel production company that crafts wheels for people with arthritis. I have tried spinning on one once, and though they are expensive, they are very very nice on lower joints. They spin so easily and smoothly with very little effort, like butter, almost as if they treadle themselves. Despite the higher cost, it could be worthwhile for you to purchase one. After all, you spin for a good portion of your income.
D > Tanks for that tip. I’ve checked them out and the certainly look to be well designed and made, with an emphasis on innovation. J says they ought to be more efficient, so easier to work. That said, I can’t imagine spending around £1000 on a spinning wheel without trying it first: and that really is a difficulty of island life!
We’re nearing that season here too! I’ve hardly touched the spinning wheels since late winter and a whole pile of this year’s fleeces are ready and waiting. Looking forward to sitting fireside, tea mug full, and wheel purring!
I have an Ashford Traditional wheel as well. They are wonderful wheels! My Ashford had to be modified at one point when I became disabled due to severe feet pain. My feet couldn’t tolerate the stress and pressure of treadling, so I was able to have a woodworker remove the treadle and connecting rod, turn the wheel around, and attach a handle out of cherry wood with a knob to turn it more easily.
I can still spin on it and use it to ply, but there are certain techniques that I can’t do on it such as chain plying.
D > Your modification is a very interesting one. I have arthritis in my feet, and it was for that reason that we bought an electric spinner (Ashford!), but I found that to be too slow, so J uses that. However my fast-treadling does give me trouble with my feet. I’d like to see if a double-treadle wheel is gentler on my joints. I may have to see if there’s a more powerful electric spinner on the market. We bought our first wheel in 1982, and fell so much in love with spinning that a second wheel was bought as soon as we could afford it (and we had very very little money, back in those days). The first became mine, the second J’s. Later we began to collect a variety of wheels – partly to suit differing projects and working places, but also just for the delight of it! However one of our many house-moves required some pruning of belongings. My original Ashford was so worn by then that we decided to sell it: I do regret that, as it could have been fettled, but I suppose it was logical and rational to sell a worn wheel and keep a nearly-new one. When we started teaching spinning wheel, we bought more wheels – more Ashfords, but also some interesting other makes – partly for introducing students to different tools and techniques, but mostly for our own pleasure. Now that we’re no longer teaching, it’s likely we’ll sell some of the wheels, but making the choice will be difficult. The Ashfords are looked down on by those who choose to spend more money in pursuit of a higher aesthetic, but for us spinning wheels are above all our working tools that help us pay our way in life, and they are in our view well designed, well built, good value for money, easy to use, easy to maintain, very long-lasting, and do the job excellently.
Wow! My new Maintenance Guy (recently retired husband) hasn’t mentioned Spinning Wheel TLC. But I guess that’s OK because he’s working on the barn. Pretty yarn!
D > The barn’s priority no doubt, certainly whilst the work is in hand and the weather is fair. J has a barn project planned for next year – that’s very much his department (civil engineering and construction was his profession). But there’s work for outdoors, and work for indoors. So when ‘him-outdoors’ has a few moments on a rainy day (and we know you get them, even in California) or on a cool evening, then it’s good to have an easily-quickly task or two waiting in the workshop. He heeds and outdoor list, and an indoor list!
I would love to have someone come behind me and tweak the wheel! I am especially envious of your tin of cup hooks!
J > Well that’s the first time I’ve come across cup-hook envy! Hah! I bought a pack of solid-brass (not brass-effect) hooks from an old-fashioned hardware shop in Montgomery – a tiny market town in the Welsh Marches : I remember it well! The tobacco tin is one of only two reminders I have of my paternal grandfather. A pipe smoker and an inventive engineer. Tobacco tins of screws, bolts, split pins, washers, tyre valves … shelves of them, thining and dispersing over two generations, my father, and then myself. My grandfather died in 1962, when I was five. Lung cancer.
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