Where to buy spinning wheels 2021

In this post, I try to answer the question "Where can I buy a spinning wheel?"
In Carndonagh, County Donegal, there is a spinning wheel maker and repairer, Johnny Shiels. His website is here:
www.spinning wheels.ie.
Johnny has followed in his father's footsteps, and also, if I am correct, in the steps of his grandfather. The family featured in the TV series 'Hands' which was filmed by David and Sally Shaw-Smith in the 1980's. Johnny is still spinning and making and repairing spinning wheels in Carndonagh. The wheels from the Shiels workshop have a distinctive look. They turn up occasionally for sale secondhand. 

My Johnny Shiels wheel in action, Summer 2017. 

The UK has several distributors of spinning wheels. Try Winghams wool work, Frank Herring, PM Woolcraft, The Threshing Barn,  Weft Blown, Fibrehut. Now in January 2021, what with Brexit, one has to be aware of Customs and all the other extra charges that could apply. 

What brands are available? Ashford Spinning wheels, Lendrum, Kromski, Schacht, Timbertops, Louet, among others.

On left above: Ashford Traditional, from 1982, approx and on right, sideview of the Ashford Joy I

. 

Buying new does not suit everyone's budget. I keep an eye on www.adverts.ie and on www.donedeal.ie for spinning wheels, but I would not pay some of the crazy prices being asked, like 300 euro or more. For that you can get a new wheel, see below!

Buying secondhand from a website like adverts or donedeal in Ireland has its hazards. You may end up with an incomplete wheel, that will cost a lot to get it ready to spin. 

There are wheels that were built as ornaments, which never designed to work as actual spinning wheels.
There are wheels that are extravagant lamps, they look like Spinning wheels, but they were made without vital components, such as the orifice (the opening at the front of the flyer for the spun yarn to go through from the spinner's hands onto the bobbin via the hooks): if there is no orifice, it is very likely that the wheel was not originally built for actual spinning.
There are wheels that are missing vital parts, such as the flyer, (u-shaped piece with hooks), or bobbins; these parts can be almost impossible to find for antique wheels and can be very expensive to have made.
There are old wheels, that are difficult to keep spinning, with rusty hooks, dry wood, tiny orifices suited for spinning linen not wool, and warped drive wheels that stick, or throw the drive band.
There are people, who know nothing about spinning, selling wheels with problems like the above at exorbitant prices.
I would suggest that you always try to get the opinion of an experienced spinner before you part with your hard-earned money. Take somebody with you to try it out or ask for lots of photos and send the photos to an experienced spinner. 

There is also the option to turn to the secondhand market or to vendors in UK or in Holland, or further afield.
I have bought secondhand wheels from people selling their wheels on www.ravelry.com, especially in the groups Irish Spinners,  UK Spinners and/ or UK Classifieds. Once again, be aware that with Brexit in 2021, we are now liable for customs charges etc for goods purchased from the UK. 

I have bought secondhand spinning wheels from Holland from Marianne at www.wolplantage.nl/ger; her site is in German but do not be put off, Marianne speaks English and replies promptly to email enquiries. She mostly sells Dutch wheels, as well as wool, and sometimes hand carders. She will post to Ireland. You could find a Louet S10 wheel on her site sometimes. 

I have also bought Dutch wheels from the Dutch equivalent of ebay, ie marktplaats.nl. Here are the hits for Louet on that site. https://www.marktplaats.nl/q/louet/   You would need to look for an ad where the seller says they will Send . You can always send a message to a seller, the messages get translated automatically. Postage for a Louet wheel from Holland to Ireland is about 35 euro, as of summer 2020. 

Buying New Wheels from European sellers:

Here is an affordable option for buying a new spinning wheel.
There is a company called Woolmakers.com, a daughter company to the well respected Dutch company, Louet. Woolmakers make and ship a flat pack spinning wheel, called the Bliss. The cost for a single treadle wheel with 3 bobbins and including postage to anywhere in the world is just under 300 euro. You can pay extra to get 3 more bobbins; that is a highly desirable option in my opinion. You can choose a double treadle if you wish, or you can order the conversion kit to convert your Single treadle to a double treadle later on.  Here is the link: https://www.woolmakers.com/product/bliss

Woolmakers also sell a small and a larger drum-carder, both also in white. https://www.woolmakers.com/products
Here is my Bliss, wearing her 6 bobbins recently.

Bliss spinning wheel, www.woolmakers.com

The Bliss is a great wheel to buy, very adaptable , affordable, tolerates travelling to Guild meetings and friends' houses in the car. I think I have to say that I love my Bliss!!

And of course, one can look at the full range of Louet wheels here , directly from Holland: https://www.louet.nl/product-categorie/spinning-spinning-wheels/?lang=en&v=d2cb7bbc0d23

I have friends who bought spinning wheels from Wollknoll, who sell Ashford wheels and Louet wheels, as well as their own brand Merino wheels: https://www.wollknoll.eu/shop/tools-equipment-machinery-895/spinning-wheels-915/

You can also rent spinning wheels from the Irish Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers, so you get a chance to try out spinning and perhaps discover what you like to spin and what you like/dislike in a wheel. Contact the Guild here hello@weavespindye.ie

Keep searching, keep trying out wheels till you find one you can get on with.
Then just keep spinning!

12 days of Christmas, Day 12, How to Spin on a Bliss spinning wheel

This blogpost deals with starting to spin on the Bliss spinning wheel from Woolmakers. 

 

What you need to start:
A spinning wheel, it can be a Bliss, if you have one, or a Louet which is sort of similar, or any wheel really;
some acrylic yarn;
some fleece to spin (Corriedale, or BFL or Jacobs or Shetland work well for beginners, it might be best not to start with Merino, angora, alpaca or silk);
a crochet hook, or a paper clip bent into a hook type shape;
little bottle of sewing machine oil, with long nozzle.
Patience, resilience, fortitude (not to worry if you don't have these, the wheel will teach you them!)

Take off the bobbin from the flyer and put a drop of sewing machine oil onto the metal axle of the flyer. The flyer is the U-shaped piece with hooks.

(Older wheels without sealed ball bearings could also do with a drop of oil at the centre of the drive wheel and where the crank of the footman is. Check the manual for your wheel if in doubt, or check online.)

Step 1: start by getting used to using your feet, ie treadling, starting the wheel going clockwise and practising keeping it going. To get the wheel to spin clockwise, you need to have the top of the footman at what I refer to as 1am on the clock, so slightly to the right of the central crank.

When the footman is here, the treadle is at one of its highest points and when you push down with your foot, the wheel will spin clockwise.
You might find that you treadle very fast at first, however, I am going to ask you to slow that pace down, so that you are treadling slower, but still getting the wheel to go around clockwise and not stop/reverse direction.


Then practise stopping treadling and re- starting in the clockwise direction just using your feet and a little push with your hand if needed. Remember the importance of the 1am position for the top of the footman. There is no fleece involved at all at this stage.

Repeat this step but now go in the anticlockwise direction. See if you can figure out where you need to have the wheel positioned to get the anticlockwise spin when you press down with your foot. (Did you figure it out? It is when the top of the footman is pointing to 11 on the clock.)

Step 2: Tie on a leader. Get a 80cm long length of acrylic knitting yarn and tie one end of it securely to the axle of the bobbin on the wheel. This is your leader.

 Thread it on the hooks and through the orifice (hole) at the front. Hold it and treadle clockwise as above. See if you can feel the twist come up through the yarn. Look closely and you will see the actual twist in the yarn, coming up along the leader . Let the leader go and the twist will go out of the leader.
You can now tie a small loop in the free end of the leader.(below)

Step 3: Now we will practise spinning with commercial yarn:  take two x 40cm long lengths of acrylic knitting yarn, different colours, and attach these two together with a knot at one end. Slip one strand through the loop in the leader and draw it out so the knot is in the loop of the leader and you have both ends of the threads in your hand.

Next you are going to spin and make ‘barberpole ‘ yarn, by inserting twist into the acrylic yarn. With your left hand, hold/pinch the threads firmly together about 3 inches from the orifice, start treadling clockwise, and begin to feel the twist come up the leader to your left hand. You will see the yarns twist around each other. Keep your left hand pinching in place here to contain the twist.
 With your right hand, hold the two untwisted strands back about 4 or 5 inches from the left hand. When twist has built up in front of the left hand, release the left hand pinch, let the twist run into the strands as far as your  right hand and you will see them twist around each other.  At this point also, you can let your arms and hands move closer to the orifice and offer the spun yarn to the wheel. Ideally, the wheel will 'take up' the yarn.

If the yarn is not winding on, then tighten up the tension knob just a tiny bit ( the circular knob under the flyer. ). Check also that the yarn is not caught or snagged on a rough hook, or twisted around a hook. 

You can do this exercise a few times, by pulling the twisted yarn back off the bobbin, letting it hang and untwist and catch it again and spin again, just for getting the feel of twist, pinching and releasing, and feeling the wheel draw in the newly spun yarn from your hands.

Next step: Real spinning! Discard the two acrylic strands. Get some wool to spin.(Which wool, I hear you cry??That is a whole other blogpost! However, I do find that combed top of Shetland, Jacob, Corriedale or BFL work well)
Pull off a short fat sausage of fiber, and draft it into a longer thinner sausage, by placing your hands about 3inches apart and pulling gently to thin out the the fiber. Later when you are more experienced, you will be drafting as you spin.

Draw out a wispy tail from the piece of fleece, insert about 3cm of the tail into the loop in the leader.

Fold the tail back on the rest of the fleece. Draw it back a little and pinch here with your left hand.

The pinch is very important, it stops the twist running up into fleece that you have not yet drafted. If you let the pinch go, the twist you have generated will run straight up into the undrafted fibers, jumping the thick parts and twisting the thinner parts , creating clumps of semi- twisted fiber which is impossible to draft as is. If that happens, just pinch again with your left hand near the orifice and with a rolling anticlockwise action of your right hand and wrist, untwist the twist out of the fiber until you can see the fibers are looser again and can be drafted.

Start to treadle and spin clockwise.  The twist will run up the leader and begin to spin the fleece into yarn. Keep your left hand in the same place , pinched.
Now you need to draft back the fleece behind the tail to make it a bit thinner. To do this place your right hand about 4 or 5 cm back from your left and draw gently back. Your aim is to thin out the fibers.
When you have drafted back a good bit, but not too much, then pinch at that point with your right hand, let go your left hand pinch , let the twist run up into drafted fleece, and you have created your first handspun yarn!
Don't Stop Now! You change your pinch, so that the left hand is now pinching where the right hand was, you move your hands closer to the wheel, the wheel takes up the newly spun yarn, your right hand is simultaneously drafting back the next section of fleece, and when twist has built up again, you release the left hand, let twist into the unspun fibers to spin it into yarn and pinch further up with your left hand , let the wheel take up the yarn, etc.....

So, how do you spin - in a (largish) nutshell,  you start to treadle clockwise while pinching the fiber at the front with your left hand, draft back with the right, release left hand pinch, let the twist move up the fiber, let the newly drafted yarn wind on to the bobbin. Meantime keep treadling!!
Phew …..that is spinning.

There are many small factors that could affect spinning, so do not be upset if it does not work first time out. It can take a bit of adjusting for human and wheel!
I hope that you can see what I mean. If you want more photos, just say so. And if there are any queries, do not hesitate to ask!

Happy Christmas 2017

Happy Christmas everyone!
Just keep spinning...

St Stephen's Day, December 2017

Spinning wheels, spinning wheels galore...

People ask me how many spinning wheels do I have. The answer currently is 10. How does it happen that one woman can come to own 10 spinning wheels? Well here's how...

In Autumn 1994, I took my first spinning lesson. It was a weekend course, in West Co Limerick. We learned to spin on a drop spindle, and to spin on a wheel. There is a photo of me spinning on a Louet-type wheel in the kitchen of the draughty farmhouse we lived in that year. This photo reminds me that I rented a spinning wheel from the spinning teacher, Julie, for a month or two. The winter got colder and so did the kitchen, and I was expecting my first child and so the wheel was returned to Julie and my drop spindle got packed away in a box.
Roll on 16 years, and 4 children later. I had some time off work for health reasons. The Internet had arrived. I discovered blogs, and blogs about knitting, and then Ravelry, and then spinners!
I dug out the old drop-spindle and said I would start spinning again. I bought a new spindle, and some fleece to spin. Then an offer came from a German lady on Ravelry, asking if I would like to buy a wheel she had for sale. YES! So in September 2010, I got my first spinning wheel, a heavy Louet-type Dutch wheel, Irish tension, single treadle, from the 1980’s probably. It pulled and it creaked and sometimes it clattered, but it worked and I began to spin. The wheel had turned full circle, so to speak.

From left: My first wheel, from Holland; My Ashford Traditional, from circa 1982; My white Bliss wheel from Woolmakers.com, purchased Spring 2017 and finally the speedy and portable Ashford Joy, Mark 1. 

After some time I noticed that I was spinning finer and finer, and the Dutch wheel was pulling and breaking the yarn, so I put out an In Search Of request on Ravelry.  I was very lucky to be able to buy an Ashford Elizabeth I from a lady in Cork in August 2012. The Elizabeth was a different ball game, it had Double Drive and this was a bit of a learning curve. I persevered and I spun some wonderfully fine, even yarn on Elizabeth. The only disadvantage to Elizabeth was that it was not easy to move her from place to place in the car. I had become a spinner who liked to spin in public. I needed a more portable wheel.

Ashford Elizabeth spinning wheel, Mark 1. Double Drive.

I put out another ISO, and this time I bought an Ashford Joy I from a lady in Galway. A relative said he would collect it on his way home from university in Galway and deliver it to me. In the meantime, I spotted an ad for a spinning wheel for sale in an antique shop near Limerick city – an Ashford Traditional. Not one to hesitate where wheels are involved, I called the shop, drove 30 mins and snagged myself an Ashford Traddy. So the Traddy and the Joy arrived within weeks of each other in February 2014.

Ashford Traditional to left, and Ashford Joy, (folded) on right

The Traditional is single treadle, single drive, from 1982 or so,  and is a lovely wheel to spin on. I use it for Heritage Week type events, as it fits the image of the spinning wheel that the public expect to see. It is also fool-proof and never complains when being lifted into and out of the car and taken to events. No fussing about setting it up either.


The Joy is equally lovely, double treadle,  and so portable. It is sturdy, attractive, effective and mesmerising  to all who see it in use. At home, it folds up and fits in a space about 5 inches wide between two presses. It sits in the space behind my car seat when I am going to Knit and Spin Night, leaving plenty seat space for my basket of wool.


I was pretty much happy with my lot at this point, but continued to peruse sites like adverts.ie and donedeal.ie. Well, we all know where that will end…..
Two years ago, June 2015, I saw an ad for a Great Wheel/Walking Wheel in Cork. The price was too high and it looked a bit funny. It had a square frame which seemed quite unusual to me, but what did I know? I asked the good folk on Ravelry what did they think, should I go look at it, or keep far away? The advice was to run. I had to clarify that, did they mean run away, or? Nope, run and get it! It was unique!
 The price dropped and I made an offer which was accepted. My daughter, who was doing her Leaving Cert at the time, was a Learner Driver, mad for the road and for driving practice. She happily drove me to Cork to collect the wheel on a gorgeous sunny Friday evening 5th June 2015. The wheel was bought in Canada by the seller’s mother many years ago and it had been shipped to Ireland when the family moved back.

Great Wheel, possibly Canadian, from late 1800's.

I subsequently discovered that there is one twin wheel to this wheel. The twin wheel was found in a garage sale on the South Shore of  Nova Scotia, (NS), Canada, near Lunenburg and was probably made originally in that area of Canada.  The owner of that wheel has done some research and found that “the best evidence would suggest that this frame was built between 1840 and 1870”. So it looks very likely that I have an antique Great Wheel.

6 months later, January 2016, I saw a wheel for sale on Donedeal.ie. The wheel was in North Co Tipperary, not far at all. A look on Ravelry and an email to Johnny Shiels in Carndonagh Co Donegal confirmed that this was indeed one of the Shiels wheels.
Off I went, on a grey January Sunday. The wheel had belonged to the seller’s mother, who lived in Dublin. When I got there, the wheel was disassembled and so began the task of assembling the wheel and trying to get her together correctly. I got the wheel upright, and set up to spin. Somehow I got her to spin and so purchased her straight away and headed home. A Donegal wheel!  Wheeeee!

Shiels wheel, from Donegal originally. 

By now I just placed new wheels in the living room in front or between other wheels. It took a few days before anyone noticed that there was a new wheel in the room and that it was different!
3 months later, April 2016,  I was gifted another Shiels wheel, a lovely dark mahogany wheel, in excellent condition. This is my wheel of choice for Irish-style Heritage events, eg, Bunratty Castle or the 1916 events last year.

Ashford Traddy to the front with my second darker Shiels wheel to the back.

In September 2016 I bought an Ashford Traditional from a fellow spinner in Limerick on behalf of a friend in Waterford. That wheel is now living happily in County Waterford.

Spring 2017: I had been telling a friend, who wanted to buy a spinning wheel, all about the Bliss wheel produced by Woolmakers, a daughter company of Louet. This wheel is said to be very versatile, great for beginners, can spin all weights of yarn, is indestructible and public friendly, and costs about 300 euro, postage included. Then the idea dawned on me, I should get a Bliss! I saved my pennies and after a few months I got my Bliss, single treadle, 6 bobbins.  Bliss made the journey with me to Sheep’s Head Yarn Festival, me and 5 wheels in a Ford Focus saloon, to teach spinning on a spinning- wheel to fellow yarn lovers.

Bliss Wheel, the day I set it up, Spring 2017.

In June 2017, I made two trips to Dublin, one to buy an Ashford Traditional for a friend in Clare who had been looking for a wheel for a while, and the second trip to buy a small quaint-looking wheel, identified by the folks on Ravelry as a Wendy wheel.

Wendy wheel, by Philip Poore, NZ, purchased by me June 2017.

Wendy wheels were made by Philip Poore, in New Zealand in the 1970’s. Philip Poore started out making Saxony wheels, called Pipy, which were based on an Irish flax wheel. He then made Wendy wheels, smaller and more portable. He signed and numbered the wheels and mine is numbered  MB 7112, the 71 denotes 1971 as year of manufacture. I believe the 12 means the wheel was made in December, the  12th month of 1971.

This wheel is small, dainty, but sturdy. It can be lifted in one hand and is very cute. It has a large wooden ball at the right side attached to the metal frame which holds the flyer and turning the wooden ball adjusts the tension. The very day I bought this wheel I brought it to Limerick Knit and Spin Night, oiled it and spun on it.

In September 2017, I saw that Marianne atvww.wolplantage.nl/ger had an Autumn offer on some dark Willy spinning wheels, so I took the leap and purchased one. It is larger and bulkier than I expected, so I may end up selling it on.



There are 10 spinning wheels in my life at the moment. They each have their own history and place in my heart. I do not use them all all of the time, but they are precious to me. I think I want to Save All the Wheels and Teach All the People to Spin.
My Spinning Wheel Wish List would be to have a Swedish wheel, a Dutch Schippertje wheel and/or a Frank Herring bentwood wheel. So if you are destashing wheels….
However, I think I have probably saved as many wheels as I have space for currently. So now to just teach all the people to spin.
Links:
http://www.woolmakers.com/  for  Bliss wheels and Hero and Giant Drumcarders

http://www.nzspinningwheels.info/pipy.html
information about Philip Poore and his Pipy and Wendy wheels

2 sites for  people looking for secondhand wheels which have been checked over:
http://wolplantage.nl/ger/     This is Marianne's Dutch site selling Dutch wheels, postage to Germany is quoted, but she will post to Ireland for a bit more.
http://www.woodland-turnery.co.uk/recon.html Joan and Clive sell reconditioned and renovated spinning wheels in UK. Email for prices and postage quote to Ireland

Note: elements of this blog post was previously published on the website of the Irish Guild of Weavers , Spinners and Dyers , www.weavespindye.ie.