I was recently contacted by a friend of a friend. She had just received her grandmother’s spinning wheel, which was packed up (quite well) and sent to her by her aunt. She had no idea how to put it back together, and when she told our mutual friend about it, our mutual friend said she knew a guy.
This beautiful little flax wheel came to me one evening a couple weeks ago in the box it was shipped, in pieces just as you see here. The wheel has no makers mark that I can find, but appears to have been made to come apart in some places beyond where I would normally expect.
It needs metal rods on the ends of the treadle bar, a new collar below the mother-of-all, new flyer hooks, and we have no idea why the maidens are at such odd angles to each other. The only theory I can come up with is that the mother-of-all is a replacement and the holes for the maidens weren’t drilled properly.
The new owner of the wheel is not sure if she will learn to spin, or keep it as a family heirloom. Either way, I am going to suggest she invest in the necessary repairs to restore it to its fully functioning glory. It will be a family heirloom that they will enjoy for a long time, and maybe some day, someone in the family will learn to spin.
Aaron knits...and spins, and weaves. 