Navajo Weaving Workshop

Navajo Weaving Workshop

with

Judy Pekelsma



When: January 11 – 16, 2010

8:30 am to 4:30 pm or later

Where: La Placita Spinning and Weaving

Lincoln, NM

What: An intensive class during which you

will learn weaving in the Navajo Tradition

Cost: $300.00 This fee includes - use of a loom, all necessary supplies (see attached list) breakfast and lunch each day, a special dinner on Friday

Note: Deposit of $150.00 will be due on Dec 11, 2009. No refunds after December 20, 2009

Class is limited to 12 students.



Judy Pekelsma is an instructor at UNM and is currently working on her Masters Degree. She spent time learning from a Navajo Weaver the traditions of Navajo weaving as well as actual Navajo technical skills.



The class will begin with an introduction to the History of Navajo Weaving and the importance of weaving in the Navajo Tradition. You will learn to warp a loom, design a pattern, weave a small rug, remove from the loom and finish the project.



Supplies included in the cost of the Workshop:

1 – medium batten 1 – medium weaving comb

1 – weaving handout 4 - Skeins of wool

1 – sacking needle Loom Plans

Supplies for warping the loom (double ply warp, 3 ply side edge cord, dowels, heddle stick, clothesline rope.) A loom will be provided for your use during the workshop.



Application

Name _____________________________________________________________________

Address ___________________________________________________________________

City _________________________________________ State ______ Zip ______________

Phone _____________________ E-mail ________________________________________

Weaving Experience (Not Required) _____________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

Emergency Contact Information ________________________________________________

Dietary restrictions ___________________________________________________________



Please send check and application form to: Carolyn Chrisman, P.O. Box 94, Lincoln, NM 88338 or e-mail information to carolyn_agri@yahoo.com



Lodging



Casa de Patron 575-653-4676

Smokey Bear Motel 575-354-2253





We may be able to provide sleeping areas for 3 or 4 people. You would need to bring sleeping bags, bedding, and towels. We have 2 twin air beds and 1 queen air bed. 2 baths are available.



Food



Breakfast and Lunch will be provided each day. Dinner will be provided on Friday evening.

Other meals will be your responsibility. Capitan is 12 miles from Lincoln and Ruidoso is approximately 35 miles each way.



Kitchen facilities may be available for those wishing to take advantage of the sleeping areas on site.

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!

What is a Spinning Wheel

Just what in the world is a spinning wheel? Is it a wheel that spins? Or is it something that actually works?

In my opinion a spinning wheel is an old piece of equipment that actually spins fiber into yarns. I have new wheels and antique wheels. I have plain jane wheels and those that have really fancy turnings on them.

I have heard the arguments that if a wheel doesn’t have some really fancy wood turnings on it really isn’t a spinning wheel. Do you really think the turnings on the legs, the wheel posts and the mother-of-all have anything to do with the way a wheel works, it’s efficiency? No, that is all for the professional home decorator. The maker of a wheel might take a lot of pride in the looks of the spinning wheel and other fiber equipment, but it has nothing at all to do with how smoothly the wheel turns, how easy it is to spin fibers into yarns or what pleasure one gets from using the wheel.

One of my spinning wheels has a wheel made from plywood. The rest of the wheel is made up from sanded, stained and varnished one by fours and two by fours. I think this is a beautifully simple little wheel. It was my first and came in kit form. On another of the wheels I have collected, no two pieces of it are identically turned. Does this affect the way this particular cobbled together wheel spins fiber? Absolutely not! I do not have one of the Babe wheels, which are polyvinylchloride piping and a bicycle wheel, but it would spin fiber just as well as one of the really fancy turned wooden products.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, especially when it comes to our useful “house decorations”. Yes, I love wood products, polished to a high shine with beeswax! None of my furnishings have the same woods, stains, or finishes on them. The thing I prize most in each of the seven spinning wheels in my house are that they work! Two of them are around one hundred fifty years old, two of them are only about ten years old, the rest are somewhere in the middle. They are oak, maple, walnut, beech, and pine! They all have attitude!

I don’t prize any maker of any wheel over any other. Each type of wheel has it’s use and it’s individual idiosyncrasies. One wheel will work better for coarser wools, one will work better for things like the new silks. One will work great when the air is really dry and hot and another requires a rainstorm to work well. We all just need to be mindful of the use we put these little machines to. If they are purely for decorative purposes, they need the fancy turnings and high polish. But if they are for use as a yarn making piece of equipment, then they need only work well and not be really fancy at all, just plywood and a few boards will work just fine.

Troll Hair

Weavers have a term for warps that just don’t work. We call it “mad dog ugly” warp. The easiest cure for it is to cut it off the loom and start over. Sometimes we get fleece that is hard to spin. Is it “mad dog ugly” or is it “troll hair”?

The first roving I got that was really hard to spin was old. My friend had had it in her stash of weaving supplies for about ten years. When she sold her loom and all her stash, I wanted to spin the roving she had stashed. My mistake!! It took me about 3 years to spin a pound of orange Merino. During this time another friend asked me where I got the “troll hair”. It was just the shade of orange that matched the old troll dolls hair.

When fibers get older they get drier and much harder to spin. This is especially true of wool. All of us have read in the spinning books to only use “new” fleeces for our spinning. This is especially true for raw or grease fleece. After a few months the lanolin and dirt set up and it is really hard to get it to draft out of the locke. It helps a little to lay it out in the sun for a while and let the sun soften the grease, but the best bet then is to clean the grease out of the fibers.

You especially don’t want to get raw fleeces that are more than a year old. The lanolin and dirt or grease, will be very hard to wash out It will be hard to break the fleece down into the locks to wash, and the grease just doesn’t want to wash out. Then there is a rancid odor to the whole fleece that is most unpleasant to live with while spinning that “troll hair”.

Old dry roving or top doesn’t stick together to spin very well. It is hard to get the twist into it and it won’t stay very well at all either. This can be referred to as “troll hair” for sure, especially if it was dyed a vibrant crayon box color. It feels harsh to the hand. You might be able to add some spinning oil to it and ease the “hand” a little. It doesn’t help much.

My suggestion to everyone is to go through your stash, label all the bags of different things with type of fiber, date of purchase, where purchased and price you paid for it. Do not keep it in plastic! Plastic causes it to age faster by not allowing the fibers to breathe. Toss anything over five years old. Make some tulle bags to keep the fibers in so they can breathe and still be separated. To keep moths and other critters out of the stash, add aromatic herbs and spices to your cabinet or shelves.

Prevent “mad dog ugly” and “troll hair” by never letting your stash get old. Use up all that really nice fleece you have put back for a rainy day. Rainy days don’t come often enough. Never keep fleece or any other fiber for more than five years, preferably no more than 3 years. Use the yarns in the same time periods or they might just become as ugly and hard as my orange “troll hair”.

Yarn Plys

The number of plys a yarn has is NOT the size of the yarn. Yarns come in a variety of sizes and plys. Sizes range from Extra bulky to Lace weight. Most of the yarns we buy commercially come in two different weights: worsted weight and fingering or baby weight. These lie in the middle of the vast number of weights of yarns and are used for most patterns. The number of plys just means how many separate strands are used to form this particular yarn.

Why do we spin fibers into yarn? Why do we ply? How do we ply? There are answers to these questions if you just stop to think about them. A single strand of silk is nearly as strong as spider web and nearly as fine too. We spin fiber into yarn to make it stronger! Just think if we could spin spider webs into yarn. We could do away with the steel industry. The more strands we can put together just makes the whole thing much stronger.

If a person takes a locke of wool between their fingers and pull it a bit, it comes apart fairly easily. But if they then take that locke and stretch it so the fibers overlap some and put some twist into it, it becomes much stronger. Then taking several of these spun singles and re-spin them, makes them nearly unbreakable.

We spin the fibers in one direction making our thread. Then spinning the opposite direction to combine 2 or more plies makes a balanced yarn. I have been in a number of discussions lately on the best way to ply the singles to make the 2 or 3 bobbins of thread come out more or less even so there is not too much left over on one of the bobbins.

The method I use is not the preferred one, but is to my liking as it leaves no leftover singles at all. I use the ball winder, winding the singles fairly loosely. Pulling the thread from the center and the one from the outside and allowing it to twist together for neutral yarn, then tying it to the starter yarn on the bobbin, works for me. The ball must be held firmly so the yarn from the outside comes off smoothly and the yarn from the inside doesn’t throw too many kinks. I stick my fingers into the ball and wrap my thumb on the outside allowing the threads to pull to the wheel with a fair amount of tension.

The preferred method is to not worry about it if you have leftovers. Just spin some more thread from the same source. Take one line from each of 2 or more bobbins, allow them to twist together, tie them to the bobbin starter, and start plying the threads together.

Another method of dealing with the amount of singles is to make a Navajo ply yarn. This is loose chain from crochet using only fingers to chain the length of yarn. It will keep the colorways in the spun thread, but tends to be a bit “knotty” when working with it.

Now what to do with the small bits of singles that are always left over after finishing with all the source fibers? How about making a novelty skein from a bit of everything? This can be used for small projects.

Breaking Roving Down to Pencil Size

My wheels were sitting in the shade of a tree at the Fair. The painted roving was lying there in the basket waiting for me to finish my coffee. I sat down to get busy. Picking up the five-yard length, I broke it into one-yard lengths and started stripping it down into smaller diameter pieces. A lady standing there watching suddenly said, "I was told it was cheating to do it that way. You are supposed to spin from the end of the whole thing". Well, maybe some people do, but it doesn't necessarily need to be done that way. It is much easier to break down the pretty colors into pencil sized roving strips then pre-draft a little to loosen up the fibers.

There is a mystery and magic about how to get the fibers ready for spinning. Roving comes in large balls most of the time in pure white. Here, the roving has been painted and dried, broken up into eight-ounce pieces and put into packages to be sold. Painted roving can have from two to five or more colors blended in them. In order to keep the colorways intact in the spinning, the spinner must strip the roving down into pencil size pieces or break it apart in handier sections then down to pencil size roving sections. It is very difficult to maintain control of singles diameter or the colorways if spinning from the tip of compacted roving an inch in diameter.

Take the length of roving and pull it in half down the whole length of the piece. Pull each of these in half again and again until you have a strip about the size of a pencil. Now draft these out a little until the fibers are all airy and the length is about doubled. This is called pre-drafting. Wrap this around your hand keeping the tail of the roving under your thumb so it can be pulled out of the little spiral easily.

This prepares the length of roving for the long draw spinning demanded of a walking wheel or the regular shorter draw of the treadle wheel. You could, of course, pre-draft all the roving so it moves easily to spin, but this would not preserve the dye artist’s colorways. It is just much nicer to not fight with the bulk of a compressed roving when trying to make nice singles. It is absolutely easier to deal with roving prepared this way when just learning to spin.

Housekeeping??

Housekeeping is a fairly simple task to do daily, right? Not for me it isn’t. I would much rather be sitting at my wheel or loom than running a dust mop. If one doesn’t live in an ancient mud hut, run the vacuum around the rooms quickly on a daily basis, picking up and putting in a basket what does not belong in that room. Wash the few dishes and stack them to dry or stash them in the dishwasher. Start a load of laundry if necessary.

If you live in the ancient mud hut, like I do, it is just a bit more complicated. Run the spider-chaser duster around the edges of the ceilings, run the dust mop over the middle of the floors, and then move some of the dust around on top of the furniture. Gather into that basket everything that doesn’t belong in the room chosen for the “lick n promise” cleaning today.

My 100 year old adobe, ancient mud hut, is not air tight. I don’t have air conditioning, so the windows are open the three seasons of the year when it is possible. The wind blows; the adobes seem to shed dirt. The windows are open so dust devils fill the house with pure dirt on nearly daily basis. Not too much problem, just sort of keeping it to a minimum is all that is required.

The other problems with housekeeping are the little critters like clothing moths, silverfish, and carpet beetles. They must be removed!! We bring them home with every box and bag from almost every store we walk into. It is best not to bring boxes into the house. Open them out doors and bring in the contents!

Put all fleece from any source into a trash bag, tie it up tight and put it into the freezer for about three or four days. This won’t kill the eggs, but will kill any adults in the fleece. Take the fleece out on the lawn and shake it well. This should cause most of the insect eggs to drop out where they can hatch without eating your fleece. That should keep most of the critters out of the house.

I like aromatic herbs in little sachets all over the house. It not only makes the house smell nicer, it is environmentally friendly, and it chases all those unwanted critters elsewhere. They do not like the sharper more pungent smell. Chamomile, sandlewood, thyme, basil, sage, lavender, cloves, cinnamon, any of the herbs and spices with a nice pungent odor are just fine. Make up the little sachets from nylon net or silk netting. They take only a few minutes to run a couple of stitch lines. Tie the tops with a pretty ribbon. Spread these around on end tables, shelves, in small pretty dishes on tables, and on window sills.

I like to keep whole cloves in the pockets of my wool garments when they are hanging in the closets. Be sure to take them out before sending garment to the dry cleaners and replace them once the garment is home again. Lavendar makes any drawer smell especially nice.

Do not seal any natural fiber, fleece, yarn, or garment up in plastic. It must breathe! If it needs to be kept fairly dust free, place it in a pillow case and baste the end shut. This is death to loads of antique quilts whether made of cotton or wool. Also do not allow any of your fine fabrics to touch the cedar walls of the cedar chests. Get some archival or acid free tissue paper to line the chest with. The oils in the cedar wood will stain most fabrics and it is impossible to remove these stains.

We will spit-polish, to our white-glove sisters’ approval, when we run out of our stashes. The only thing that must absolutely be done daily is to oil your wheel on any of the moving parts so they don’t squeak! Chasing dust bunnies and spiders can really wait til next week, don’t you think?

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.

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.