Spinning Wheel Repair

I am doing more with spinning wheels lately. Below is a photo of a completely new bobbin I made for this19th c. wheel made by Heinrich Zuber. She will be going to her new home soon, along with three more bobbins I will make for her.

Here is the wheel with all it's new parts. She spins beautifully! I hope her new owner loves her.

Spinning and Dyeing at Historic Sites

Wow, I've been very lax about posting! I have been writing this post in my head for weeks, but am finally getting down in print.

In late October we went to the Bolton Historic Site's fall rendezvous. We set up a "store front" so I could get some pictures and, hopefully, sell a little yarn.

What great fun it was to spin on my antique wheel in 18th century clothing while talking to people about fiber! I sold a decent amount of fiber, considering I really wasn't trying, and made contact with someone from the spinning group that meets at the Daniel Boone Homestead. I have been trying to get in touch with that group for a while but not having any luck.

The next weekend we went to Historic Londontown in Edgewater MD and I dyed some yarn with cochineal and weld. I really wanted to experiment with 17th and 18th century techniques over a wood fire.

I forgot the cream of tartar at home so the cochineal came out more purple and the weld was very subtle. But the two colors look nice together.

I have been researching more period texts on dyeing and have found a couple from the late 18th century. The Country Dyer's Assistant from 1798 and The Dyer's Assistant in the Art of Dying Wool and Woolen Garments... from 1800 are fascinating reads. I also purchased Organic Fiber Dyeing: The Colonial Williamsburg Method helpful in dyeing larger quanities. Most of their recipes call for Glaubers Salts and I haven't found any recipes of the period using salts in the dyebath. So more research to come.

The Flax Process

The 50th annual Goschenhoppen Festival was yesterday and Friday and I was able to go for a short while on Saturday morning. The heat was too brutal for a prolonged visit or an afternoon trip. I spent about an hour and a half there, mostly looking at the spinning and textile related areas. They put on a great flax demonstration. From their patch of flax growing:

To their demo of flax drying after retting:

Removing the seeds:

Flax breaking:

And scutching:

And hetcheling:

And finally spinning:

All the demonstrators are very informative and open to questions. They made me want to grow my own patch of flax next year!
In the next post I'll show photos of other textile demos.

Spinning Flax

For the past five years or so the guys in our reenacting group have put up a display of 17th century weapons at Dixon's Gunmaker's Fair in Kempton, PA. This year I wanted to demo spinning but had to come up with something that would relate to 17th century weapons. So I decided to try spinning tow to make match cord. Match cord is needed to provide the spark that ignites the gunpowder in the pan of a matchlock gun making it go BOOM. But how was match cord made in the 17th century and before? So far I have only found references to it being "twisted" and made of flax or hemp. I still haven't received the hemp I ordered 2 weeks ago but was lucky enough to get in touch with Johannes Zinzendorf from The Hermitage which is about an hour an a half from my house. He had tow, I just had to go get it. I was looking forward to seeing the hermitage again as I had taken my very first ever hearth cooking class there in the mid 1990s. The place has grown and I was thrilled to be able to see the spinning and weaving house. Two big barn looms and at least 10 tape/box looms were great to see, but their collection of spinning wheels was wonderful. They had a tow wheel! As we were walking out of the building I asked Johannes if he had a Picardy wheel. He wasn't familiar with the term but said he had a wheel that couldn't figure out.

My first thought was "cool old spindle wheel with a crank and treadle." I thought the cone on the end of the spindle was protection from the sharp point. Then I put on my glasses and realized it was an end piece to a picardy flyer! (pardon my really crappy phone pictures but I forgot my camera.)

Johannes had been trying to get the wheel to spin but was having no luck. He was thrilled to hear about the missing flyer part and how it would work. I was thrilled to actually see a Picardy wheel and get a sense of the scale of the orifice! It's an amazing little wheel and I hope they can now get it working. With tow, and some flax too, in hand I braved torrential downpours for the ride home.

Spinning tow went better than I thought it would

I am waiting for pictures of actual match cord from the 17th century then I can figure out how many strands to ply. After that the cord will be soaked in lye water (wood ashes and water) then saltpeter. Our group is getting quite a collection of matchlocks so it would be great to have authentic cord.

At the end of the day I tried spinning long line flax and what a treat it was after spinning tow. Tow is scratchy and coarse, flax is smooth and fine. I used Caroline, the Country Craftsman wheel, for the demo since I didn't want to take the antique wheel out in rough conditions (it was supposed to rain and even though we were under a canopy I didn't want to take any chances.) But I can't wait to try flax spinning on my 200 year old flax wheel.

My Spinning Wheels Part I (Or How to Repair a Broken Flyer)

Let me introduce Caroline. She is a 1970s Country Craftsman I recently bought for $45.

She was being sold by a family cleaning out their basement. The wheel had belonged to the man's mother; although he doesn't think she used it for spinning. He just remembers it as decoration. It was made by Rooney and he retired in 1982 so it is older than my oldest son. Caroline is missing the last piece of the distaff and the flyer was broken. The family were thrilled that we would be fixing it up and using it as a spinning wheel.
Now that she is all repaired she spins like a dream. I can spin so much finer on this wheel than on the Louet.

My husband Alan will now take over this post and explain his repair.

The flyer came repaired with hot glue and was not only a mess but was drastically out of alignment. Removing the glue was easy as all I had to do was reheat it and wipe it off. A mild wire brushing removed most of the visible residue. There were small pieces of the flyer missing and since there was old dried glue soaked into the joint it was doubtful a simple new glue-up was going to hold. The real solution was to remove enough old wood to glue in a sizable block of new wood and re-drill the hole for the spindle.

I selected hickory from a previous project to use as the fill-in block. Hickory is a great wood for this application since it resists splitting on the grain.

First thing is to make a template. Align it as best as possible and establish a square reference line, in this case its the long axis between the wings, that will be used later to find the center for drilling the spindle hole. The template will also be used during the glue-up.

Squaring off from the reference line and marking the flyer pieces for trimming out the bad joint.

The new wood block glued in place. The block is oversized at this point as the excess will be sanded away once the glue has set. There is a small piece of parchment paper under the joint to keep it from being glued to the template. Any clamping arrangement will work as long as it puts adequate pressure on the glue surfaces. Fit it up before applying the glue to make sure your clamping arrangement will work.

 

The glued-up and sanded flyer. (the yellow color is due to the lighting/camera)

Not knowing how the flyer was broken in the first place, I thought reinforcing the joint with a 1/4 inch wood dowel would be a good idea. The flyer is set up in a jig for drilling the 1/4 inch hole. A useful tip to know is that soft wood dowel from a home center or hardware store is actually smaller than the  advertised size. This drill bit is just under 1/4 inch to make sure the dowel will be snug. After the hole is drilled support the flyer well, dribble glue into the hole, and gently but firmly drive the dowel through. Later when the spindle hole is drilled it will intersect and go right through the dowel.

Back on the template to find the center line for the spindle hole. Taking half the distance between the wings of the flyer and making a right angle line through the joint shows where the hole will go.

Squared up on the drill press and well supported for the through hole. The spindle is a precise 1/4 inch but has slightly over sized splines at the end to hold the flyer so it's important the hole is drilled to exactly 1/4 inch, clean and true.

The completed assembly ready to go back on the spinning wheel

And now a little dissertation on the repair versus replacement philosophy. Though it would not have been very difficult to replicate the whole piece or have it replaced by a professional, I get a great sense of gratification that comes from restoring what one craftsman has painstakingly made with the expectation of lasting for generations. Saving the original from an early demise brings continuity to the project as a whole and is also by proxy a communication from one craftsman to another. It shows appreciation and respect for both the piece and it's creator. Also, the ideology of repair delays the universal law of decay, which will destroy all things given enough time. A pleasant afternoon in the shop becomes in a small way a defiance of the universe itself. How about that!

Washing Wool

My daughter and I finally tackled washing some of the skirted wool from the fleeces. It had been soaking for about a week and was starting to get nasty. Of course I couldn't find the bottle of Kookaburra wool wash I picked up at the MD Sheep and Wool Festival last month (it must be somewhere really safe!)
When my husband built his shop in the garage he put in this great big double bowl sink. It works great for washing wool.

The best parts of the wool are at the processor so these were the bits I couldn't bear to throw away, but will take a bit of carding/combing to be able to do anything with it.

After drying I tried my hand at carding (boy do I need to get better at that!) Finally I was able to spin my own sheeps' wool that I processed myself. The top half of the bobbin is some mystery roving I got from a friend, the bottom half is all mine!

I am a very beginning spinner and still have a lot to learn. But, heck, I spun my own sheeps' wool!!!
(Note to self; write post on my spinning wheels and beginning spinning attempts.)
 My indigo plants are just about to bloom so need to be cut back. Maybe we can try dyeing some of the cleaned wool blue.