Good morning and happy Saturday! Last weekend, after my spinning class at Weston Hill Farm in Westerlo (which was awesome, by the way!) I stopped at the Cluckin’ A Critter Farm in nearby Greenville to pick up my Anthony Cardarelle spinning wheel that Skip Watt had done some work on. You can read more about this wheel here and how it came to be in need of repair here .
If I were to keep this wheel in my herd permanently, I would have been fine with my splint and duct tape repair job. However, since I rarely use this wheel, I decided it will eventually be passed on to another spinner, and I thought it would be a good idea for it to have a proper treadle. The Clemes and Clemes Traditional which is the current version of this wheel, has a very unique treadle that I quite like, so I asked Skip to make a similar treadle for my Cardarelle wheel. I think he did a fantastic job!
Another issue (actually two issues) that needed to addressed is with this wheel’s bobbins. Like the current Traditional model, my wheel came with three bobbins, but one of them didn’t fit quite right on the flyer. The flyer and two of the bobbins have the number 73 written on them, which corresponds to the number 73 stamped on the wheel when it was made. The third bobbin has number 72 written on it, and while it doesn’t look significantly different from the other two, there was just enough difference in the size and shape of number 72 to prevent it from turning properly. With a little bit of heavy sanding on one end, bobbin number 72 now spins better than the other two original bobbins.
The second bobbin issue is that it only had three of them. With one bobbin on the flyer, one of the three spaces for on-board bobbin storage (I refuse to call it a built-in lazy Kate) is left empty, and I always thought it looked rather incomplete with one space empty. Again though, if this were a wheel that I would keep permanently, the number of bobbins really wouldn’t matter to me. Because I <a href=”//blog.timesunion.com/fiberarts/saturday-morning-spinning-be-kind-re-wind/15877/”> rewind everything onto storage bobbins</a> before plying, one bobbin for a wheel is all I need. Having a full set of bobbins will give it more appeal to other spinners, especially if they’re not as OCD about rewinding as I have become. Having done a bit of test driving last night, I think the new bobbin that Skip made for this little wheel looks and performs spectacularly!
You have probably noticed a significant difference between the new treadle and bobbin and the rest of this wheel. I purposely asked Skip to leave the new parts unfinished. I will part with this wheel someday, but not until I put some serious work into refinishing the entire wheel. It is certainly an attractive wheel as it is, but the dark, reddish tone of the finish isn’t as flattering as a lighter finish would be. So for now, this cute little wheel will continue to live here.
This afternoon I get to do two of my absolute favorite things – teach new spinners, and visit a yarn and fiber shop that I have never been to before! My drop spindle spinning class this afternoon is at CeCe’s Wool in Esperance. This new shop is owned by former New York State Senator CeCe Tkaczyk, and features yarn, fiber, and other wool products all made from locally raised sheep, including the Jacob sheep that CeCe raises on her farm. I love Jacobs not just for their unique light and dark coloring, but also for their multiple horns which gives them a very striking, majestic appearance.
Speaking of local fiber producing farms, next weekend is the 24th Annual Washington County Fiber Tour For the past several years I have been unable to visit any of the farms on the tour because of conflicting family functions. This year there is no conflict, and I am looking forward to visiting as many farms as I can on Saturday no matter what the weather brings. I’ll have another post about the tour later in the week. Until then, I have some spinning to do this morning, and a class to prepare for this afternoon. Have a great weekend everyone!
Aaron knits...and spins, and weaves. 
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