Musings about Spinning Wheels -- a reproduction wheel from the former USSR

This wheel showed up on craigslist, within a reasonable driving distance and in my price range.  So I got it.

The seller had bought the wheel used many years previously.  She was upgrading to a more modern wheel from a currently active manufacturer and no longer wanted or need this one.  She knew nothing more about the wheel beyond "it works".  I don't remember if there was a driveband on it or not, but since most of the time I end up needing to replace the driveband anyway, that didn't bother me.

I had no idea what the wheel was, so I asked around.

Someone on Ravelry found its twin:  "See SPIN-OFF Magazine Winter 1991 Edition, Page 79, “Spinning Wheel Treasures From Europe Part 1- Horizontal Wheels” by Sharon Hudgins. The wheel is identified as a Russian (Soviet Union at that time) made wheel she purchased in 1984 in Prague, Czechoslovakia."

A few other people soon posted on Ravelry, showing photos of wheels that were very similar.  The author who wrote the Spin-Off article had purchased her wheel in a state-run crafts store that was meant to show off traditional craftsmanship from Russia, I believe.  And given that some other people have similar wheels, there were apparently a lot of them for sale throughout the former USSR and Eastern Bloc countries.

Fun!  So apparently the US isn't the only country that was having a fad for reproduction spinning wheels in the 1970s and 1980s.

This is a very silly wheel but I adore it.  What's silly about it?

It came with four bobbins.  But only one of them works with the wheel.  The other three are too big.  My guess is that a previous owner had some extra bobbins made but the dimensions weren't quite right.  Metric vs US?  Differences in shrink/swell of American vs Czech/USSR wood?  A bit of mis-measurement and/or lack of precision when they were commissioned?  No idea!

The bobbin comes off by unscrewing the metal shaft from the flyer.  I don't think I've ever seen that kind of thing in any other spinning wheel, not that I've seen a lot of spinning wheels.  However, now that I know the other bobbins won't fit, I don't bother changing it out.  I just unwind the spun yarn onto a storage bobbin and go from there, like I do with other wheels that have just one bobbin and/or that have bobbins which are a pain to change out.

The orifice hook is a handmade thing that was undoubtedly added after.  Since most older wheels don't have orifice hooks at all, this isn't a problem.  There's a pretty handmade clay bead that serves as the handle.

The treadle is a narrow board, narrower than many people's feet.  It works perfectly well, though.

The distaff is a different wood from the rest of the wheel.  And as with my other reproduction wheel, it's not that stable and thus not that useful.  I don't use it.

The wheel isn't particularly fast -- I think it's around 1:10 or so -- but there's something about it that keeps me coming back to spin on it for just a little bit longer.

I have no idea if this was made to be a spinning wheel or just a decorative piece.  There are a lot of wheels from that era that were made to be decorative.  Some aren't able to spin.  But some, especially those that were copied from extant pieces, actually do spin, often quite reasonably well.  This one falls into the functional category, whether accidentally or on purpose.

I don't use it often, but it's always a lot of fun whenever I do use it.

Musings about spinning wheels -- reproduction wheels (Midway)

There was a craze for Americana, and in particular, colonial-style decorating in the middle decades of the 20th century.   For those who couldn't afford proper genuine antiques, the market provided new-looking reproductions in the same or similar style.  Reproduction furniture in colonial styles.  Reproduction braided rugs.  Reproduction doo-dads.  Among the doo-dads that could be used to furnish one's rooms were reproduction spinning wheels.  Many were lovely, made from attractive wood that had been nicely finished.

Some, such as the Roxton made in Canada wheel I mentioned in a recent post, were completely non-functional.  But some were honestly patterned after genuine pre-20th century antique wheels.  And some of those actually were usable as spinning wheels.

Country Craftsman and Daneker are moderately well known among fans of vintage reproduction wheels.  Many Country Craftsman wheels are reasonable spinners.  Some Daneker wheels are, too, though from what I've heard, it's more hit or miss with them.

There were manufacturers of kit wheels, too.  A person would buy the kit and assemble the wheel him or herself, staining it or otherwise decorating it appropriately.  Again, some were functional and some weren't.  Ditto for spinning wheel plans, which were fabulous for the home woodworker but weren't always made by people who understood how a spinning wheel produces yarn.

This fondness for spinning wheels of an imagined simpler or more rustic past wasn't just limited to the US.  There are European reproduction wheels, too.

Also, I wonder about the genuine spinning wheel manufacturers around the world that were making wheels then -- how many were aimed at spinners and how many at decorators?

In general, reproduction wheels tend to be a bit cruder than the originals.  The details aren't as refined, and I don't know if that's due to the economics of making these or if it reflected the aesthetic tastes of the times (for simpler or less fussy decorating details).  The ones aiming at the decor market tend to use brass for the metal bits and the placement of hooks on the flyer (if any) can be a little hit or miss.

Anyway, in case it wasn't obvious where this post was going, there are a fair number of these kinds of wheels knocking about on the used market.  They show up at estate sales.  Sold on used doo-dad sites as "sitting in the barn for 20 years or more, and it was here when I moved in".  The sellers tend not to be spinners and mostly thought of these as decor.  And indeed, when I went to look at some of them, they rarely showed any signs of having been used for spinning.

In general, these wheels needed a solid cleaning after being in an unheated outbuilding for a few decades.  They sometimes needed a bit of patience to loosen up parts that were stuck either with grime or with the shrink/swell action of two decades of being outdoors.  They needed a new driveband, and sometimes new bits of leather.  Any distaff that was still with the wheel usually ended up being more ornamental than useful.  And of course they needed lots and lots of oil as I started to spin.

I did not acquire wheels that needed major repairs.  No flyer/bobbin?  Broken flyer or missing/broken flywheel spokes?  Nope, someone else could take on that project.  Ditto for wheels where the flyer/bobbin clearly did not match the rest of the wheel or were obviously non-functional.  I also kept to my very strict budget so I wouldn't be overwhelmed by all the enticing wheels out there.

None of these wheels had more than one working bobbin, and none had orifice hooks or other spinning accessories.  If they had a driveband, it was usually some kind of thick (and ostentatious) rope, as if to emphasize its spinning wheel bona fides.  ("It works!" they would say as they turned the flywheel and the flyer obediently turned, too.)

I do have a few of these vintage repro wheels, but only ones that can spin yarn.  They tend to be a bit finicky but are perfectly usable, and indeed, I do use them.

Probably the first I brought home was a Midway wheel.  I don't know all the history, but the Ohio company that made these reproduction wheel kits also put out a wheel called the Hallcraft wheel.  There might have been a few more brand names, in addition to wheels that were a bit of a mash-up.

It's fairly small, about 3' high and 3' long.  (This seemed tiny when compared with my CPW.)  The ratios are, I believe, 10:1 and 12:1.  It's a double-drive wheel.

This is what it looked like when I picked it up.

Here's another view, from a person who bought out some remaining inventory from the Midway Manufacturing Company and was selling newly-assembled wheels that were similar though not exactly identical.  The distaff is different and mine has darker wood, but they're very similar other than that.

One of my cats chewed on the distaff, alas, but all the distaff ever really did was tip over and fall off, so it's not like I ever used it.

I don't use my Midway very often, but it is a serviceable wheel that makes yarn without a lot of fuss.  What more could one ask for?

I am thinking about selling it, though, or at least loaning it out to a new spinner -- it deserves to go to someone else who is in need of a simple yet functional spinning wheel, and who would use it more often than I do.

Somewhere I have some of the yarn I made on this wheel, but I'm not sure where.  I mostly did small skeins of this and that rather than a large batch of anything..

I have other vintage reproduction wheels but those will be saved for future posts!

Lavori 07/30 progress and the next set of chart errors

I'm still slowly making progress on Lavori 07/30.  I'm definitely in the section where there are already 12 repeats per round, meaning that the chart (at 6 pattern repeats per round) repeats the same sequence of stitches.  This makes it easier to keep track of things and also to spot errors.  There are over 800 stitches per round now.  The flower is long gone; it's just the hex mesh and leaf motifs now.

Here are the next two chart errors.  I could have put them in my previous post but was hoping to wait until the post where I finally did jump to the next chart (at round 171).

Round 159:  After the first set of leaves (and the skp, k3, k2t that finishes it off), the stitches at the beginning of the stretch of hex mesh are charted as yo, skp, k2t.  This should be symmetric with all the others, and the skp should be a double-decrease (sk2p, left-leaning to preserve symmetry).

Round 163:  In the first set of leaves, the last leaf is missing a yarnover.  It should be (k4, yo, k-tbl, yo, k4) like all the other leaves.

Now I am on round 165 and have discovered a true chart error.  All of the previous ones have been fairly obvious typos, but this one is a little more complex.

The first set of hex mesh motifs shows 5 repeats of the motif, while the second shows 6 repeats.  The first set does not match the stitch counts for round 163.  The second set does.  However, the first set, going upwards through round 169, does match the stitch count needed for round 171.  The second set, therefore, does not.

Sigh.

There are decreases at each end of the hex mesh motifs.  I believe that if I change them from single to double decreases, that the stitch counts will work out.  The first set on the chart will work as charted from then on.  The second set will match the first set.

I need to do some charting and very careful stitch counting before I continue.  If necessary, I can also involve the edge double-yarnovers that are next to the double decreases in round 163 and change them to single yarnovers by dropping the second yarnover.  I'll see what seems to work best to make sure I reach round 171 with the correct number and arrangement of hex-mesh motifs.

I can also see that there is something weird at the end of round 167/169.  There's a double decrease at the end of round 167 that just sort of disappears in round 169.  There are no move-the-marker symbols on the chart at that point but I suspect that the last stitch of round 167/168 does move to the beginning of round 169.  Then, of course, the problem will be moving to round 167 instead of round 169 depending on what I do at the end of round 165 (since I'm probably changing the skp at the end of round 165 to a double decrease).

On the bright side, the leaf motif sections for the next few rounds appear to be charted correctly, no missing yarnovers or anything.

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I did start a new travel project!  It is indeed the F&F half-square triangle shawl I mentioned in the last post.  Instead of handspun, I'm using a batch of commercial yarn from the stash.  It's a smooth variegated light-worsted-weight yarn.  I have 4 balls of it, between 450 and 500 yards.  I like it so far.  I had thought to use this yarn in a Wingspan shawl, but that was a few years ago.  I'll be happy to have it out of my stash as long as the yarn and pattern are a good combo, which so far they seem to be.

I'm dithering a bit about sweaters again.  This time it's the simple gansey projects I had done some research on a few years ago -- the Appledore gansey and/or Harry Freeman's "seeds and bars" gansey.  The Appledore gansey/jersey is a classic gansey in its construction, but the only decoration is on the shoulder straps.  Harry Freeman's gansey has several horizontal bands of simple moss or seed stitch patterning, separated by bands of garter or reverse stockinette.  The Harry Freeman gansey is a very popular and widespread style with a lot of simple variations, and even Mr. Freeman himself had several slightly different versions in his sweater wardrobe.

There is a pattern given for an Appledore gansey in Rae Compton's book on traditional gansey/jersey knitting.  I had adapted it for my size and for a big batch of handspun I wanted to use, and had gotten as far as the armholes when I decided I didn't like how it was turning out.  So maybe I'll try again, not following any specific pattern but just kind of winging it.  I have several books that discuss ganseys in addition to general sweater construction plus the resources of the internet.  I also have several sweater-sized yarn batches, both handspun and commercial, in various yarn weights.

Although I like the seeds and bars patterns, I'm not sure what yarn I'd want to use.  Plus I'm not sure it would be flattering on me.

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I still haven't plied the yarn spun on the new rescue wheel.  Maybe this afternoon.  Then it might be time to clean and warp the rescued rigid heddle loom.  I think I've already written about that a bit.  I'm still trying to decide if general weaving posts will go on this blog or on another fiber blog.

No photos for this post!  Maybe I'll add something later, but chances are that it'll wait to the next post.

Musings about spinning wheels -- rehabbing older wheels (CPW)

In my first post in this series, I wrote how I'd spun on a wheel borrowed from a friend, but it had been sold when I inquired about purchasing it.

So...  back then, I thought it was a 1970s-ish era Ashford Traditional.  It had tilt tension and a split table, so that seemed like a reasonable conclusion.  It thus occurred to me that perhaps I should go find a nice vintage Ashford Traddy on the used market and buy my own!

And thus started a new habit.  I didn't see any Ashfords for sale when I looked.  But I did see other wheels!  Oooh....

The first wheel I went to see confused me.  Beautiful, yes.  But where was the tension control?  Why did the flyer/bobbin arrangement have nowhere for the yarn to go through the orifice?

I'm glad I already knew how to spin and could figure out these kinds of details.  Because yes, this was the wheel for which the term SWSO was invented.  This Spinning Wheel Shaped Object was designed as decor, not as a spinning wheel.  It was a lovely Made in Canada Roxton spinning wheel.

I smiled politely and walked away, though I earnestly informed them that this wheel was ornamental only and could not possibly spin.  I have no idea if they knew that, though in retrospect I don't think they cared either way.

I don't remember if there was another non-functional wheel during that first search.  Or maybe there was a bait-and-switch where they said one price but then either increased the price or suggested I offer a higher bid.  (That's happened a few times.)  But then I saw an ad for a rather battered CPW.  I'd never seen one in person even though I knew of their existence.  So down I toddled.  And it followed me home.

So much to learn!  First, a solid cleaning to remove the dust of ages.  And then a few tweaks and what-not.

The whorl was stuck on the flyer, not uncommon in an older wheel.  The screw was left-handed but I knew enough to be aware of the possibility so I didn't break anything.  The bobbin and whorl and flywheel had a few chips here and there, but nothing too awful.

The footman was missing.  No big deal -- A long piece of wire worked perfectly well.  Any drivebands were long gone, but a nice piece of crochet cotton took care of that.

The hub had a crack.  But it seemed very stable so I left it alone.  And the tension device was deeply kludged -- it had been semi-modernized previously.  So although it wasn't original, it did work.  I could adjust the tension and that tension would hold.  I could have purchased a replacement if and when I was ready to do so but I ended up not doing that.

The first time I sat down to spin, the whorl immediately tightened itself all the way until it mashed against the bobbin.  I guess the screw (either the whorl or the flyer shaft) was slightly stripped.  Wrapping a piece of plumber's teflon tape around the area on the flyer shaft took care of that problem.

Then she spun!!!

I was thrilled.  Wow, this old spinning wheel, neglected for decades, was now a working wheel, because of my actions!

CPWs are delightful wheels.  They're so industrial-looking, with the large flywheel and the beautiful metal treadle.  They look and feel very steampunk.

People say they are really fast wheels.  I'm not so sure about that.  A whorl-to-flywheel ratio is what matters, I believe, no matter how big or small the flywheel is.  But the large wheel whooshing around is very impressive, for sure.  And it was a nicely efficient spinner.

I enjoyed using the wheel.  When I did a long-distance move several years later, I sold it locally since I thought it should stay in the area.  The person who bought it finished fixing it up and then re-sold it.  I am happy that someone could put in the time and money and know-how to bring out the wheel's full former glory.  I hope its current owner loves it as much as I did.  Maybe someday I'll get another.

For those who care, CPW stands for Canadian Production Wheel.  It refers to a style of spinning wheel that was made in the late 19th through mid 20th century by a group of wheel makers who were based in Quebec.  The wheels were sold locally and also by the Dupuis Freres department store (under the brand name of Duprex).  They mostly feature large flywheels, metal treadles (and footmen), tilt tensioning, and a double-drive setup.  People who love and collect them have identified distinguishing characteristics of most of the major manufacturers, though there was a certain amount of mix-and-match and also a bit of individuality between wheels even by the same family or person rather than everything being cookie-cutter alike.  Mine was probably a Bordua, probably from one of the later/younger family members of the Bordua CPW Dynasty.

Here's some yarn I spun on my CPW.  It's llama that I had dyed with kermes.

I don't seem to have a lot of other clear photos of yarn I've spun on this wheel, darn it.  But there was more, really and truly!

After that experience, I was hooked.  Getting an inexpensive and possibly neglected old wheel, and restoring it to spinning functionality - it was addictive.  And I still wanted that vintage Ashford Traditional.  Even after I figured out that the initial loaner wheel was something else entirely.

So I kept looking.  And when the stars aligned, kept doing wheel rescue.

This is the second in what seems to be turning into a series of spinning wheel posts.

Musings about spinning wheels -- my first wheel (Fricke)

I've written a bit about spinning on this blog.  It's usually oblique -- a view of some yarn plus or minus discussion of a knitting project, with a brief mention that it's handspun.  There's a post about CD spindles (still my favorite type of production drop spindle) but only a little bit about wheels.  Hmmm.

I acquired my first wheel about 5 years after I started spinning.   I was exclusively a spindle-spinner before that.  A friend loaned me one of her wheels for a few months and after I returned it, I decided to get my own.  I've written about that loaner wheel -- I spun a few pounds of Romney on it that winter and eventually knit a sweater from the yarn.  Many years later I asked if I could buy the wheel from my friend, but alas, it had already been sold to someone else.  I don't know what it was.  I saw it once, maybe in the New Zealand spinning wheel site, but I can't remember what it was.  It was similar to an Ashford but it wasn't an Ashford.

The first wheel I bought was a Fricke S-160.  It's one of the very few wheels I purchased as a new wheel (as opposed to a used wheel).  I absolutely hated the delta orifice but luckily was able to get a more traditional flyer where the yarn goes through an orifice.  I've spun so much on it that the edge of the orifice hole is shiny and thin where the yarn rubs against it.

I still have and use that wheel, many many miles of spun yarn later.  It's my main travel wheel when I do demos or hang out with spinners and knitters.  It's not really designed to be a good travel wheel since it doesn't fold up and it's not particularly streamlined nor lightweight.  However, it is sturdy and utilitarian and doesn't have a lot of little things that can get scratched or broken or knocked out of alignment.  It's also one of my main plying wheels since the bobbins are a pretty decent size.

Some of the original plastic bits have needed replacing, namely the driveband (a stretchy band) and the footman connectors (plastic tubing of some sort).  I was able to get a new driveband from the Frickes.  When it was time to replace the footman connectors, I found out that the Frickes had retired!  Oh, sad day...  But it turned out that Ashford makes a 6mm cord that works well as a substitute, yay!

That's the downside of modern materials, and in particular, polymers.  They get brittle with age.  Maybe someday I'll have to replace these with a string for the driveband and leather for the footman connectors.  But hopefully I'll be able to find proper polymer replacement parts for a good long time.

The Fricke wheel has a nice range of ratios.  I almost always use the faster ones.  The bobbins are Majacraft plastic bobbins that hold roughly 4 oz.  The wheel is a simple upright style, single treadle, scotch tension.  The treadle is large enough to treadle with either foot or both feet.  It has a heel-toe action that means I need to find the sweet spot.

I've seen some weird Franken-wheels over the years that use bits from the Fricke wheel as one of the component wheels.  I have no idea why people do that -- did something on the Fricke break so they re-used its pieces?  Did they not like the Fricke for some reason?  I have no idea how well the Franken-wheels spun.  I hope for the sake of their owners that they spun reasonably well.

I know the Frickes came out with a double-treadle version as well as folding versions.  But I have the simple, bottom-line, old-school plain wheel.

Hmm, I don't know if I have a picture of my Fricke.  Maybe I'll add a pic to this post later.  There are plenty online if anyone cares.  But I can share a few photos of yarn I've spun.

The above pic is some 2-ply alpaca that I spun at a demo.

Some BFL handpaint, left as singles yarn.  I dyed it myself (or a family member dyed it) rather than buying the roving already dyed.

Some white 2-ply merino/dorset that was plied on the Fricke.

A cowl that I knit with Fricke-spun handspun yarn.  I later ended up unraveling it because the proportions ended up not quite right for my needs.  I'm glad I took a photo, though, since the fabric is very cute and I like how the pattern stitch interacts with the yarn.

And here's the yarn that made the cowl.  I'm pretty sure I dyed the roving.  I'm not 100% sure what the fiber was -- my original notes said BFL but when I spun it up it behaved more like some Romney roving I had at the time.

And so on.

This post started as some general musings on wheels.  But it ended up being about just one wheel, really, with only a little bit about the loaner wheel that preceded it.  I guess I've started a new series...  I have many musings to go.

Not that it's relevant, but I'm still making progress on my doily and I'm nearly done with my travel shawl/scarf.  I don't think there's enough yarn to finish the last sets of eyelets as the pattern calls for, but it'll be fine either way.