Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend

I donated my well-loved and well-used Ashford spinning wheel to the thrift shop today. I seemed to have lost the knack for spinning and my kids--although they had fond memories of this wheel--had no place for it. Besides, it really needed a home where it would be used for spinning, and not just for display. 

My favorite local thrift/charity shop, Rock of Ages, agreed to take the wheel, all my spinning tools, and three large bags of wool, silk, angora, llama, and alpaca fibers. I hope that someone will buy it all and will use the wheel for many years. It would be a wonderful Christmas gift for the right person.

I ordered the wheel in 1975 from the Ashford Company in New Zealand. It came as a kit which I put together myself. It was a great learning experience and I was always glad that I knew every part of my wheel, its name and function and how everything went together. I kept the directions all these many years. 

 

Here I am, back in the day, spinning with a group in a park in Sumner, Washington. At that time, I was an early member of The Moonspinners, a spinning guild that met in the evenings. I also co-owned (with my friend, Marj) a spinning and weaving shop in Sumner called The Country Weaver.

This shawl was my last big project--hand spun, hand dyed, and knit of soft wool. You can follow the whole process in this post, From Sheep to Shawl. 

My Spinning Wheel

While we're waiting for me to tease the rest of Kai Llama's fiber (see Spinning Kai: Teasing) and get it ready to spin, I thought you might like to see my spinning wheel.  It's an Ashford Traditional Single-Drive kit wheel, made in New Zealand.

Although I specify "single-drive," I believe that was the only kind of drive available back when I ordered it in 1975 or so. Now there are lots more choices, and even the traditional wheel that is sold today looks a bit different in design.

I assembled this wheel completely by myself, and that made me feel very proud, as it was the first time I had ever attempted such a project. You can see the assembly directions here. By putting it together, I handled every piece and understood its function, and how it was connected to the next piece. That knowledge came in handy when I later needed to adjust or tune up the wheel.

Way back then, the kit cost $95.00 delivered to the closest spinning and weaving shop, which was in Puyallup, Washington. I see that unfinished wheels cost between four and five hundred dollars now!

One of the things I have always loved about spinning is how the names of the parts of the wheel hearken back to another long-ago time: The maidens, the mother-of-all, and the footman. You can see a diagram of a wheel and its parts here.

If you are thinking of getting a wheel, I would recommend that you buy a kit and put the wheel together yourself. Another suggestion: Don't store the wheel out in a hot, dry garage like I did. It's been a real job to get it back into working order after it was exposed to such extreme temperatures! Never again...