Assembling Your Walking Wheel

Someone asked me how to put her antique Walking Wheel together. It had been dismantled, boxed and shipped to her. It is completely easy.

Lay all the parts to the wheel out on the floor. The first part to look at is the largest board, this is the “bed” of the wheel. Place it about where you want the wheel to be leaving about 3 to 4 feet behind it for you to walk around it and to spin back to.

Now find the legs. There should be 2 the same and a longer one. Put the back legs in the holes in the bottom of the bed, lifting the bed up enough to slip them in. They likely are on a slant, so there will be a flat spot at the bottom for them to sit flat on the floor. Adjust so the back is stable and firmly on the floor.

Slip the front leg into its hole. This should have the bed sitting at an angle, not flat on the floor. This leg also will have a flat spot on the bottom so it isn’t standing on its toe. Press firmly on the bed so the wheel is firmed against the floor. We don’t want it tipping over.

Now we come to the wheel post. It has a large spike, this should be at right angles to the bed facing out at you. Put Vaseline on this and on the leather washer that is on the wheel post. No leather washer? Easy to fix, just go to the leather shop and get a scrap of heavy belt leather about 2 inches square and cut it round, in exact center cut a hole the size of the back of the wheel axle. Turn the smooth face out, but put Vaseline on both sides of it. Slip the Wheel on the axle and turn it gently.

The wheel post should lean back from center and toward the back wall just a bit with the axle level. This is the angle needed to prevent the wheel from spinning off the post and axle and crashing on the floor. If it is properly angled it won’t need a pin in the end of the axle.

Tensioner is some mechanism, that either slides and has a band across it and around the bed or it has a screw mechanism that pulls it to another post at the front of the bed.

In the first case of the piece of lumber that has a band around it, slip the mother-of-all post into the hole on the end of this board. In the second case slip the 2 posts into their respective holes. These are the two types of tensioners I am familiar with. I have one of each.

Now for the mother-of-all! It slips onto the top of the longest post at the front of the wheel with the whorl facing the wheel. There should be holes in the mother-of-all for the maidens to drop into. If it doesn’t fit tightly, get a small piece of lining leather and put a slim strip of it on the post then slip the mother-of-all over it and the post top. It must not turn freely. It must be tight.

The spindle and whorls I have are the simple ones. One fits through holes in the Maidens and the other is tied onto the Maidens with corn shucks and linen thread. They both have the whorl directly on the spindle, which is a steel pin about 12 inches long and very sharp on the long end.

The drive band should be made of rough cotton cord, which I cannot find in any store so I used crochet cotton size 10 or bedspread cotton and chained it to fit around the wheel and the whorl. This can then be tied together and stretched and retied till you have it the length you need for spinning. It needs to be waxed with beeswax.

Oh, the Internet is Born

Click title for a cool video on how the internet was born. It is a good giggle, so don't bother looking for a reference to it on Snopes.com It won't be listed there and if it is, oh, well! Snopes doesn't have the goods on everything.

We leave in the morning to Albuquerque for the New Mexico State Fair. Will set up the shearing pens for the long running, nearly 40 years, Sheep to Shawl exhibit and demonstrations by the New Mexico WoolGrowers, Inc. and the Las Aranas Spinners and Weavers Guild.

The fair opens on Friday with all the Junior Livestock Show people coming in. That is a good circus to sit and watch every year. 4-H and FFA members from all over the state coming to see who can show the best animals. They are all really good kids and we never have "police incidents" on our end of the fairgrounds. I have seen most of the current Advisors and Extension Agents grow up this same way, here at the Fairgrounds showing their stock.

Saturday we have to get to the grounds no later than 7AM as the streets close to traffic for the big Parade.

We will talk to people about sheep, wool, spinning and weaving for eighteen days. Then we will all come home and be happy without talking for a few months.

Some Adventures of Princess Beauty

Princess Beauty lived in a castle in the southwestern desert with her parents. She had almost everything a girl of her age could want, except for the one thing she wanted above all else. She wanted a pair of soft, pale pink wool socks and mittens to match. Now you might ask why a princess couldn’t have her every desire. Well it’s this way!

Like all girls her age at the time she had chores that must be done. She might only be 12, but she was in charge of the Spinnery and the Weavery at the castle. She had been charged when she was 9 to make sure that every person in the kingdom got enough wool or yarn to make a new pair of socks and mittens every year. She discovered on the first year that everyone wanted the nice soft Debouillet and Rambouillet wool for their socks and mittens. The whitest and finest of wools went to the spinners first. Then everyone else in the castle could choose their wools after that. Even the lowest scullery maid had a choice before Beauty was allowed to choose her wool. Always there was only the very coarse Churro wool left. And it was always a muddy gray color and couldn’t be dyed to a nice pink at all. Oh, yes, it never wore out, but what was the point in that?

This year, she ran up the staircase in tears. She ran right up three flights to her old Nursery where Nanny was resting before the fire, knitting her new socks. Now, Nanny was old and had Alzheimer's disease, but most days she was lucid enough to understand what it was she was supposed to do. She said, “Why, Child, what ever is wrong with you this fine morning? Why are you in such a state?”

Beauty dropped to her knees beside Nanny’s rocking chair and put her head in Nanny’s lap. She cried, “Why can’t I choose some wool first? I know it’s my job to see to it that every one in the kingdom has new socks and mittens, but it’s just not fair! All that is ever left when it is my turn to choose is that old grey Churro wool that is fit only for rugs and saddle blankets! Why do I have to wait ‘til last?”

“Oh, dear me! Let me think now! I believe that your father the King had all the spindle wheels put up in the attics when you were born. I can’t remember, now, just why he did that, but he had it done,” said Nanny rubbing her forehead. “And if I remember correctly he had all the wool of that year also put up there. Now dry your eyes and wash your face and run up to the attics and see if there might not be some of the very fine Rambouillet or Debouillet wool up there.”

Beauty dashed up the stairs to the attics, there was dust everywhere above the fourth floor. No one had swept or dusted in years. Spider webs were everywhere. They covered the windows, they connected the equipment to the old chairs and other furniture. Beauty was amazed at the walking wheels. They were beautifully made pieces of walnut and mahogany. The wheels themselves were higher than her head. And there were bags of wool just laying there under each wheel.

She played with the wheels a while turning the wheel so it drew the spindle round and round. She picked up a bit of combed fleece to see how this worked. Wow!! It would spin the wool much, much faster than she could ever get it done with the drop spindles down stairs in the Spinnery. She got a lot of wool spun that first day. And as night fell, she went to dinner as expected. Then she went to the kitchens to see what Cook might have that she could dye this beautiful white wool pink. Cook said, “I have some raspberries, but you know they don’t stain my aprons, so that won’t work. But I will be using some Cactus Apples tomorrow in the salad. That stains really nicely. If you add some vinegar to it, it would be a beautiful rose pink color.”

Beauty barely slept that night. She was so excited, but knew she couldn’t go to the attics until she had completed all her chores downstairs in the Weavery the next day. Fabric for the new cloaks and shawls was being made and she had to make sure all the looms were up and working before she could do anything else. If someone were ill, she would have to fill in for them. As spinning was finished for the time being she wouldn’t have to do more than make sure the Spinnery was clean and all spindles and baskets were stored properly.

At breakfast, Princess Beauty just couldn’t sit still and kept fidgeting until the King got after her. He said, “Well, I see you are all ready to go to work. So get on down to the Weavery and make sure every loom is ready
to weave. I, too think it will be a long cold winter, and early as well.” Beauty took off in a very unprincess like manner.

She was in luck, every weaver was in place and ready to work. Of course, all weavers know that a little cold won’t keep them from dancing the treadles as this is hardly work. The only thing that will keep a weaver from her job is a broken arm or leg. Beauty loved to weave and did at every chance she got, but today she wanted to be in the attics spinning. She was so looking forward to her soft, pale rose pink socks and mittens. And there was even enough wool up there that she could have a cap to match. The weavers didn’t need minding, so Princess Beauty was able to be out of there in a flash.

In the attics there was enough light coming through the dormer windows that she had no trouble at all seeing what she needed to do this morning. She did the walking wheel dance, three steps back and three forward again, taking on the ages old rhythm of the old spindle wheels. She mused as she was spinning, .”these are spinning wheels, these are walking wheels, these are wool wheels, these are spindle wheels. Why oh, why did Father put them up here all hidden away!”

She missed morning tea, she missed lunch, she missed afternoon tea, she missed . . .! She was getting tired and bent over to her basket to get the last piece of roving and raked her arm on the tip of the spindle. She fell asleep instantaneously. Just as the wicked fairy had predicted twelve years ago, she had pricked herself with a sharp pointed object.

Now at the same time as the wicked fairy had put the curse of the pricking on Beauty, she had also condemned all the handsome princes in the world to live as ugly green frogs. They all knew the tale, but none knew who was the real Prince Handsome and who was just an ugly green frog. But, being told from birth that one of them would turn into Prince Handsome upon kissing a beautiful princess, they were all looking forward to finding one. The tale of the poor Princess Beauty asleep went out all over the kingdom and spread around the world. Every ugly green frog had to make the trip to the Fair Kingdom to try kissing the beautiful sleeping princess. Do you know how many ugly green frogs kissed that beautiful sleeping princess over the next 100 years?

Well, now it really doesn’t matter at all does it! Finally the one who was the Prince Handsome kissed the sleeping princess. She awoke immediately and he turned into the Prince. Wow!! Did she say, “Oh, my! What a handsome prince you are!”? Oh, no! Not our dedicated Princess Beauty.

She said, “Oh, Dear! Cook will have tossed out all the cactus apples she promised me so I could dye my white yarns a nice soft pink!” and down the staircases she ran. She ran into the kitchens, Everyone was different. Not a soul she knew! Clothing styles were different! No one was even wearing socks, let alone wool socks!

Spinning on the Great or Walking Wheel

Spinning on the Great Wheel takes a bit of adjusting techniques. First off, one needs to retrain their left hand if they are right handed. If they are left handed, they need to train their right hand to turn the wheel. Can you really walk, pat your head and rub your tummy all at the same time and explain what you are doing while doing it? That is what spinning on the Great Wheel is all about. It is a definite crowd attraction. Set the wheel up in a public place and you get all the attention from passersby you can want.

Getting the wheel set up and adjusted takes a really good eye. The wheel post must be at the correct angle for the drive band to work correctly and pull the whorl. This takes some minute adjustments to keep from throwing the band. You might have to shim the axel with leather to keep the wheel from wobbling. Then use Vaseline to grease the axel and leather liner. There needs to be a leather washer between the post and the wheel. This too needs a light coat of Vaseline. Sometimes there is a hole in the end of the axel for a keeper pin. This can be a large hair pin, a cotter pin (split pin) or a nail. If the Post isn’t set at the correct angle in the bed it will tend to spin off the axel.

Now setting the Mother-of-All correctly. If the mother-of-all isn’t snug on the post, it can cause a great deal of grief. It will turn and throw the belt. Snug it onto the post with leather shims. If necessary hit it with a rubber mallet to get it down tight so it doesn’t turn. Again use some Vaseline on the leather to keep it from drying out and getting hard. On the Mother-of All are the Maidens. These are the two posts that hold the spindle. The spindle may go through the posts or may be tied to it with string or leather. Both of my wheels have the simple spindle, so the drive belt goes around the simple whorl. They usually have several spinning notches in them. It really does not matter which of these notches the drive belt goes around as long as it doesn’t throw off the wheel.

Now, use beeswax on the drive line and on the rim of the wheel. It keeps the drive band pulling the wheel. No, I don’t use beeswax on my other wheels, either, but the drive band will slip if it isn’t waxed. I make my own drive bands for these wheels. Chain two, single crochet in first chain, chain one, single crochet in last single crochet for the length needed to go around the wheel and around the whorl. Wet this rough chain and tie it snuggly around the wheel and whorl. It will need adjusted, tightened, a couple of times, so don’t tie it off permanently at first. When it is ready to tie permanently, use the Weaver’s Knot and trim the ends close.

Quill, rhymes with Wheel, is a foundation bobbin on the spindle. These will allow you to take the singles off the spindle when you determine you have enough thread on them. I make them from a sheet of scrap paper. Standard notebook paper folded in half lengthwise then in thirds. Cut the papers, stack and cut off a corner about an inch in. Wrap these one at a time around the spindle so they are smooth with the point of the paper about an inch from the point of the spindle. Put on a tiny piece of tape to hold the tube. I will fill about 2 to 3 dozen of these quills in a day of spinning, so make plenty of quills. I put on a starter line of about 18 inches tying it loosely in the middle of the quill. A single half of a square knot will hold beautifully. These quills do not have a back on them, so I wind the thread on in an egg or nut shape rather than a cone shape as you would do with drop spindle, for instance.

Now we are ready to spin!! Holding the fleece to be spun with the starter line, spiral the starter off to the tip of the spindle. This is where the spin goes in to the fibers, with every pop here at the tip of the spindle. Watching the spin point just at the end of your fingers, you can see and feel the spin forming. When the wisped out end of the fleece has grabbed hold, draw back on the fleece, always watching the spin point, turning the wheel. You might want to give the wheel another turn or two at the end of the draw. You are coming off the tip at an angle half way between straight out and the tip . This gives the best results. You will be able to step back about three steps while doing the draw. You can go only as far as you can reach the hub of the wheel. Reverse the wheel, swinging the thread up to align with the bed of the wheel, reverse to forward again to wind the new singles thread onto the quill. When about six or so inches from the quill, spiral off the tip again to start spinning again.

Photos of my girls learning to spin on the Walking or Great Wheels are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/CactusPatchLamb/Spinners along with other spinners and their wheels.

A couple of good Youtube Videos on spinning are here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrrJLAXwUBU and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ha6g3WKW-s

Enjoy your spinning experiences.

Oiling and Waxing Spinning Wheels

Several people have asked me how to care for the wood in spinning wheels. Well, this goes right along with your fine wood dining table, china cabinet or any other piece of furniture that features fine woods. They are all made from trees, a renewable resource, cut down, sliced into lumber, refined into the fine furniture we all love. They all require care, polishing, oiling and loving.

Now, I happen to collect antique furniture. I inherited quite a mixture of different woods from antique to quite modern pieces, and have added some very fine and some very rough pieces to this collection. Decorators ask what shade of wood would we like in our rooms, Walnut?, Knotty Pine, Distressed Pecan?, Oak or Maple? in their many different shades? They would have a fit when viewing my great room! I have everything. I have Pine, Walnut, Oak, distressed Pecan, Rock Maple all jumbled in together. The one thing all these have in common is the need to be dusted, polished and waxed.

Our great, great grandmothers had only the choice of beeswax to make a nice shine on their furniture. Today we have about as many choices of polishing substances as there are bees in a bee hive. Some of the furniture I have brought home, like the Great Wheels were so old and worn they had little or no finish left on them. Some like the Moswolt Wheel are things of great beauty, lovingly cared for all their lives.

When I bring home a piece of wood furniture with out much finish left on it, I finish sanding it down, saturate it with linseed oil for several days, then hand rub Tung Oil blended finish into it’s surface. If I choose not to refinish it, I spray it with Orange Oil and buff with a soft cloth. For general purpose dusting and polishing, I like Beeswax and Orange Oil in suspension. There are the heavenly odors of the beeswax and orange to make my room smell good, but mostly that combination gives enough oil to the wood to preserve it and the beeswax lays down a protective coat and really nice shine. I pour the Beeswax and Orange Oil on the fleece side of the sheepskin, and coat the wood liberally and have at least one cup of coffee. I then go back and buff the wood with a soft cloth like worn out tee-shirts.

The one brand name of furniture polish I look for is Howard's. I can find it at most hardware stores that have a wood refinishing section or I can go to the woodworking supply stores to get it. I keep little scraps of sheepskin pelts to use for furniture waxing. I get these from making vests and other fancy stuff from sheepskins. Or I can get them from leather supply companies. Tandy Leather Company and Leather Factory stores may have these scraps available. You can also get these from saddle making shops. You just have to look to see what is available in your area.

How to Buy a Spinning Wheel

So you want to get a wheel? There are so many out there. How do you know what brand to buy or should you get a used one? All spinning wheels are lovely to look at. We’ve seen them sitting in antique shop windows, as decorations in living space layouts, and on ebay! They are featured in movies, TV programs, and in magazines. But which one should you choose? Should it be antique, gently used, or should it be new?

My first wheel was an Ashford Kiwi, a beautiful little basic wheel. These are very good beginner wheels. They are totally simple with scotch tension. My request to Santa was for one of the Traditional or Elizabeth wheels. With the advice of the shop owner, a spinner himself, Santa brought me the Kiwi, still in the box! Ashford wheels come as kits. They are made of birch and can be stained any color you might wish. Top this off with very clear instructions for putting them together and you have a really good project.

If you get a wheel by mail, it might not be the one for you. You should do some research, find the nearest yarn shop or spinning shop and go try out all the wheels in the shop. Just sit and treadle some for a little while. If there isn’t a shop near you, check for a Spinning Guild near you. See if they won’t invite you to a couple of meetings to spin on their wheels for a bit. Most guilds are looking for new members so are happy to have visitors.

If you are determined to have an antique wheel, ask the antiques store owner if you can minutely inspect the wheel he has in the window. Bring along a new cotton or linen drive band, an oilcan, and some fleece. You may have to replace the drive band and for sure you will have to oil the moving parts. Then spin a little fleece to see how the wheel reacts. If the wheel is like most I have seen, it will need some more repairs. This includes the little tab from the footman to the treadle. All that is needed is a new piece of soft flexible leather and a couple of tacks. On Walking Wheels you would need a new drive band and a small tube of Vaseline, the oilcan and your fleece.

There are bargains to be had, that’s for sure. Watch the ads in the newspaper, the message boards at the yarn and spinning shops, garage sales, and used furniture sales. You can find some great deals that way. The local spinning guilds usually have a sales list in their newsletters also. But a word of caution: Always tryout the wheel before laying down your hard earned dollars. If you purchase a wheel you can’t get along with, it will sit in the corner and collect dust and cobwebs for a few years before you put it in a garage sale or advertise it on maybe Ebay.

No way can I spin on my son’s Indian Spinner. He got a bargain on it from an older lady. He had tried the wheel, loved it and she said it was for sale. It has a heavy cast iron wheel in a rectangular frame. It’s a high production wheel and has a very heavy treadle. I cannot keep the wheel going round! So be warned that people do buy the wrong wheel and then regret it very much as it becomes a dust collector.