12 Days of Christmas: Day 8: Spinning excursion

Day 8: Tuesday 2nd of January, 2018.
It will take me ages to get used to writing 2018, this I know from past experience.

Today, I went on a mini spinning excursion. I went to visit a spinning friend, M, who lives about an hour's drive from me, not necessarily including the ten minute traffic jam in the small county town nearest her house. I think I counted 3 or was it 4 sets of pedestrian crossings in that town, with the result that all the traffic between Limerick and Cork and vice versa just c...r...a...w...l...s through the town. The promised motorway between Limerick and Cork would be a great relief to drivers and townspeople alike, I imagine.

M has two wheels, an Ashford and an older wheel. I was particularly interested in the older wheel,  which at first reminded me of an East European wheel, as it has a pronounced slant to the table. However, closer examination a few months ago showed that it was probably a much more modern wheel, maybe 1970's or 1980's even and of Dutch origin. I am tentatively calling it a Prinsenhout Staphorster wheel.


It had two problems, firstly, the footman kept on hopping off as M tried to spin on it and secondly, it had no bobbin brake.
First things first: I had a few different washers  and circular metal clips with me. I found one that more or less fits the end of the crank where the footman sits. However, the crank seems very short and the clip hops off and then the footman hops off, after ten seconds or so of spinning.

Undaunted,  I rigged up a basic bobbin brake from kitchen cotton cord and got the wheel to spin by shoving the clip on as tightly as I could and just spinning. The clip hopped off again and again, but at least I was able to get it to spin and to take up the yarn.
Later, after a lovely lunch, M had a spin on my Bliss and my Ashford Joy, and I admired the lovely batts of Zwartbles and merino and alpaca she had made and the blue and grey punis. Well done M!
I need to dust off my drum carder and get blending too!
The Prinsenhout has come home with me. Nobody at home has even noticed yet that I have brought home another wheel. Excellent! This means I have built up their tolerance to wheels to the point where one more doesn't matter!

the Prinsenhout Staphorster 

12 days of Christmas: Day 2, spinning wheel exchange

Day 2 , Wednesday 27th December.
Let's start with a bit of background info: I have 10 spinning wheels and 4 children, one husband and one cat, all in a relatively small house. Coming up to Christmas, I realised that I needed more floor space in the living room in order to have space for the Christmas tree. Also , I had two daughters who would be coming home from college and they would not appreciate sharing their bedrooms with a spinning wheel or two, from this little group of wheels.

the view of the corner of my living room

To cut a long story short,  I decided that two of my spinning wheels could go on a Christmas holiday to two new spinners.
One wheel (a light coloured Dutch wheel in the style of a Louet S10) went to B outside Ennis.
The other wheel, (a dark coloured Willy Spinnewiel from Holland also) went to S, from County Limerick.

Willy Spinning wheel, from Holland

However, the leather tension strap on the wheel that S got broke shortly after she got it home.

The leather strap on the wheel before it broke. It is connected to a tension peg, which is hanging loose on the left lower part of the photo.  

That was two weeks ago. I really wanted S to have a working wheel.  So yesterday's spinning activity involved me meeting S and taking back one wheel from her and giving her a different one. We met at a hotel in Limerick and had a lovely chat and cuppa, joined by  another knitter/spinner/dyer, G.
S took to my Ashford Traditional without too much bother, and I tried out the dark Dutch wheel again.  Amazingly it spins and takes up without any tension at all, and I got it to spin quite finely. Apparently it is a bit of an acquired taste, the other two girls did not find it comfortable to use at all,  so it looks like this old Dutch wheel will be staying with me for the time being. No bother....

I am glad it works without the leather strap. Maybe I don't need to be in a rush to replace the leather. I do not fancy taking out those 3 studs holding the strap, I am afraid I would damage the wood. Not to worry, I know an excellent woodworker, who can do these small jobs for me.


It was lovely to spend time with two other spinners last night and it was just what I needed.
The waitress even recognises us now because that hotel is where we go to meet up for the weekly Limerick Knit night which G started. The waitress offered us some wool as she said she had a fleece from one of her family's sheep. Immediately, I offered to teach her how to spin the fleece. So maybe one night she can come join us and learn how to spindle spin!