I’ve mentioned before that I have a spinning wheel and spin
yarn for some of my knitting projects. I
will try spinning any fiber. It doesn’t
matter if it’s a protein fiber (wool, llama, camel, cat, dog, etc) or plant fiber
(cotton, silk, paper, etc). I confess
that I’ve even been saving my own hair from my hairbrush. I keep the hair in a plastic Walmart bag in my
bathroom and add to it on a daily basis.
I reason that, should I ever go bald, I can spin it and ply it with
elastic thread then knit it into a hat/wig.
However, I am beginning to question the soundness of that reasoning as
the hair is morphing into one big ball. It
sort of looks like a gigantic cat got into the bag and hacked…never mind...let’s just
say that it’s a lot of hair.
Back to spinning…My spinning wheel is one of my most-prized
possessions. It was a gift from
Charming. It’s not the wheel itself that
makes it so special. It was the extreme amount
of effort he expended in order to obtain it.
About five years ago, I was driving by a yard sale in our neighborhood when
something on that lawn called my name. (I
don’t normally hear voices…except when I pass by yard sales and thrift shops.) I immediately slammed on the brakes and pulled
my car to a screeching halt in the driveway.
I got out of the car, made a beeline across the yard, gave the spinning
wheel a quick once over and asked how much they wanted for it. Did I think it was worth $20? Um…heck yeah!
I gave the lady $20, heard a quick story of the wheel’s history, hopped
it to my car while balancing its uneven weight on one knee, and ever-so-gently eased
it onto the back seat…and properly secured it with the seat belt.
Charming came home that evening and asked, “What is THAT
thing?” as if it was something from outer space. I proudly and breathlessly gushed, “It’s an
antique spinning wheel, over a hundred years old, it needs just a little work,
which I’m sure you can do, and I got it at a yard sale today for $20!” (Yet another incident in my life that
strangely parallels an episode of “I Love Lucy”…Come to think of it, Charming
did get that same sort of bug-eyed look that Ricky had when Lucy told him that
she was going to sew her own designer dresses…Aye, aye, aye!)
Truth be told, the spinning wheel did need a lot more work
than I realized. So over the next few
months, Charming encouraged me to either buy a brand new one or at the very
least get a used one that had been built in the latter part of the 20th
century. After months of the wheel
sitting in the corner of our living room, I finally realized that the wonderful
old wheel was not going to be restored and used…at least not by me. During this time, Charming showed me tons of
pictures of new spinning wheels that he’d found online...Schacht, Kromski,
Louet, Ashford. But still I held off on
selecting one. As I’ve said before I’m very
frugal, so I couldn’t convince myself that spending $500 - $1,000 for a new
spinning wheel was a good idea for a beginning spinner. Recognizing my cheapness for the disability
that it can sometimes be, Charming went to E-bay and found a used Ashford Traditional
that had been purchased new by the owner in the 1970’s. The write-up indicated that it worked
perfectly and was being sold because the owner upgraded to a newer model and
didn’t have room for both. Charming sent
several e-mails to the seller for more information and then bid on it. He got the wheel for $300. However, the wheel was in Nashville ,
Tennessee Nashville ,
stopping only for bathroom breaks. Upon
our arrival, we spent a lovely hour with “Barbara” who demonstrated the
spinning wheel and accessories, which included an extra flyer, two large
bobbins, two small bobbins, a Lazy Kate, instruction manual, and some wool
roving. As I thanked Barbara and
promised I’d take good care of her wheel, Charming carefully wrapped it in the
blankets and put it in our car. He drove
all the way back to our house where we arrived around midnight . What a “thunder
run”!
Next day, I sat down, anxious to spin. I had taken several lessons, but those had
been several months prior and on a different type of wheel. Now, I couldn’t seem to get my feet and hands
going at the same time. I had started
off smiling, then my brow started to furrow, then I started to sweat, and
finally I started to cuss. I don’t often use bad words…I mainly stick with the phrase that anyone
would say when the levy breaks…“Dam it, dam it, dam it!” The cussing went on for about an hour, then
Charming came out of his office, saw my frustration and offered to give me a refresher
lesson. He sat down in my chair and I sat
on the floor beside him, telling him how the wheel was supposed to
operate. Within five minutes, he was
making yarn. He was sending that roving
through the wheel’s orifice at the same rate he’d use to rip a piece of lumber
with a table saw…BUT he was actually spinning a fairly decent yarn. Feeling somewhat sheepish (pun intended) for
letting my frustration get the better of me, I just sat there quietly. When Charming stopped spinning, he stood up,
put his hands gently on my shoulders and simply said, “Patience.” He then walked back into his office and left
me to try it again on my own. Within
fifteen minutes, I was happily spinning away and all was right in with the world…And they lived happily ever after.
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