Slow But Steady

A few years ago I bought a traditional style spinning wheel because I had fond memories of my first traditional.  Unfortunately the wheel had a funky tensioning mechanism that relied on friction between the flyer assembly and a large metal 'staple'.  Which was fine - until the wood dried out and shrank and there was no more friction!  The flyer assembly just flopped over and died and there was no more spinning to be done on the wheel.  Which was a great pity because while it worked I'd quite liked spinning on it.

Earlier this year when I decided to downsize and get rid of my wheels I asked Doug if he could figure out some way to make it work.  Well, the wheel finally rose to the top of the 'honey do' list and today he completed the repair.

Which meant I had to first empty the bobbin, which I did by plying it on the Joy, then find some roving I didn't mind if I messed up in order to test the wheel and see if it was going to work.

I found a few small bags of a hand dyed roving I bought from Joybilee Farms that had been dyed by Sarah as part of several years worth of science projects investigating dye material from woad grown at their farm in southern BC.  Since there was not a lot of each colour I figured I would use it and what ever happened I would figure out something to do with it.  Between the three colours there should be enough to do something nice and if I messed up a little of it, it wouildn't be a huge problem.

The good news is that he did get it fixed and I can spin on this wheel again.  Now to decide if it keep it or try to sell it.  The jury is still out on that.  ;)

One other thing to share - I got a really pretty orifice hook from Jude Pilote.  You might just be able to see it stuck into the ball of light blue roving.  (Click the photo to biggify.)  When I got the Joy, it came equipped with it's own hook and I thought I would give Jude's hook to a friend.  However I still need a hook for this wheel and since I haven't decided if I will keep it or sell it, I'm keeping the hook too until I decide.

In other news I'm finally done the anti-biotics, my ankle is greatly improved - enough that I wasn't too worried about sitting spinning, finally - and hopefully my energy will return so that I can be a little more active.  Still not pushing myself too hard, but if I don't do something productive during the day I start feeling too much like an invalid.  :^)

Currently reading Timbuktu by Marq De Villiers and Sheila Hirtle