Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Spinning Wheel and Spinster



Mom's French aunt Micheline painted this spinster with a distaff. Her son Jim gave me the painting after I learned to spin. He said that she didn't like to paint hands. The fact that I can't know if she was spinning with her other hand or not makes me crazy. Just looking at it makes me want to go can jelly for Jim for Christmas. The generosity of the gift still moves me.







Here is my first spinning wheel. My aunt Joyce gave it to me. She said someone made it, but it didn't have the mother-of-all. I found someone to make that for me. Since I learned to spin on this, most of my yarns are long-draw. My great wheel is definitely a walking wheel. I spin as long as I can before winding back on. Now I need another part. Notice the 2 legs? There should be three. I have it propped up against the wall. Mom found someone with a lathe to make a new leg. I'm anxious to try it out again. It is actually very relaxing if you can get past the screaming cursing part where the band slips off every 45 seconds.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

WhoHoo I finally found your site!!!
That is the coolest thing i've seen, how old is it?

Unknown said...

Oh it might be nice if i would have left my name..haha anyways it's me Samantha!

lora said...

I am pretty sure it's not that old. My guess is that a hippy back-to-nature dude made it in the 60s or 70s.