Hi all! I’m so excited to be sharing this video with you today. As you can probably tell from the title of this post, I got a new spinning wheel! Yee!
Way back in 2011 I got my first spinning wheel, an Ashford Traditional, but since I moved to Tasmania in 2013 I haven’t been able to have a wheel at home. I was either living in student accommodation, share houses, or most recently the home I share with my husband and children which is too small for a big piece of equipment like that. Well, my very talented husband, with the help of his very capable father, just recently finished building us a study/craft room!
My heaven-sent birthday present!
My husband finished our study/craft room on January 18, a day before my birthday, and that day we started talking about me getting a new spinning wheel. I still have my old wheel being stored at my parents’ place but it is too far practically-speaking to transport it especially with our small children in tow.
Well, that night, the night before my birthday, my sister-in-law sent me a message. She had a friend who was giving away…a spinning wheel! And she said I could pick it up the next day (my 30th birthday!). I couldn’t believe my eyes.
We picked up the wheel after church on my birthday. And it’s a beauty. An upright, I’m not sure on make or model.
It needed a bit of a restoration which you can watch in the video above. The main areas that needed work were:
- The flyer arms were rusty, so I couldn’t use the sliding hooks to evenly fill the bobbin.
- Some other metal parts were rusty or tarnished.
- The maidens were loose.
- The wood had some water staining.
After a quick de-rusting, a little gluing, and some oh-so-satisfying cleaning with a BBQ wipe, my wheel is fully functional!
I’ve got some alpaca fleece that I brought with me from last time we were visiting home(in the hopes that one day I would have another spinning wheel) which I’ve been using to test this baby out. I have also ordered some ginned cotton which should arrive soon. I’m so excited to begin this adventure again!
Are any of you spinners? Can anyone help me identify my wheel?
