That was a fun weekend!

I was going to visit my mom this weekend, and heard about a 19" Reeves available for a decent price but a bit of a detour.  So of course I detoured - it turned out she had two!  Both walnut, neither quite 18".  My sister bought one, and I bought the other. :-)

Neither one appeared to have been used, but the grandkids had played with them so they aren't quite pristine.  Once we got them to Mom's and oiled and treadled a few times they broke in fast and are spinning like champs.

Oddly, on mine neither the bobbin nor the whorl are finished.  It's smaller than my 19" oak Reeves - 'only' 17.5"; my sister's is 17".  What a difference!

The walnut wheel is much much lighter in weight as well - it could make a nice travel wheel.  In fact I may take it to Spin Club this week. :-D

The seller also had an antique Finnish wheel that was in surprisingly good condition considering she was made in 1844!

Isn't she lovely?  I need to fix a small problem with the flyer, but the drive wheel spins well and once the flyer is fixed she will spin again. :-D  She still has a lot of her original paint, and I can't wait to get her cleaned up!

It was an experimental week...

I did a bit of spinning, but it was just more of the same that I've been working on.  I did however play in the woodshop. 

I wanted to try a wool finger on the great wheel, and since mine didn't have one I turned one from the very few photos I found on the internet:



I tried it, and though it was ok I can't really get far enough away from the wheel to make it useful (it is supposed to extend your reach).  If I ever get enough room in the great wheel room I may be able to give it a better try.


I also turned a wrist distaff, out of curiosity.



I found it more useful with the great wheel than the wool finger, though I do need to work on my wrapping technique. :-)




And we were talking about spinning spoons on Rav's Suppported Spindling group, so I decided to make a test version.  I'm only using scraps and it's not made very well, but it really does work and I can even walk while spinning with it!



It works seated as well, though I need to figure out how to make it 'hang' lower or use a shorter spindle while seated.  I'm going to try to make a nicer one as time permits, especially after I've used this one more to figure out what modifications are needed.


I also turned a Russian spindle out of brown ebony, which is lovely wood, but it's not finished yet so you'll have to wait to see it. :-D


And now I'm off to spin some cotton on a bead spindle, and try out the spinning spoon some more. :-D

For my sister....

I can see a thin crack on this edge, but it's nothing - it's common to have these cracks in not-new wheels and it's nowhere big enough to affect function nor appearance IMO.

Snow!

After the thunderstorms we had this past week, this afternoon it started snowing!

What a weird winter!

In spinning news, I bought a drop spindle. :-)  I love that the Chinese coin replica has a dragon and phoenix on one side:

And I actually had pretty good luck spinning the bit o'fluff that came with it:

Though one drawback is that the 'coin' is rather... 'flimsy'.  I think I bent it the first time I dropped it, as I hadn't noticed that it wasn't flat before then. :-/  Still spins like a champ though, and I've even learned to do the thigh roll (I had to - the shaft is so slick I couldn't hardly flick it!).

This is a very lightweight spindle and spins very fast, and I was thinking of spinning this lovely batt from Blushingewe

Turquoise Dream  merino wool, bamboo, alpaca, soysilk

 as laceweight - this spindle would be perfect for this if I can take spinning 3.5 ounces on a drop spindle.  Though I'm in no rush, so I should be able to do it if I pace myself.

This also came in the mail:

Northern Lights alpaca/silk

I kind of went on a shopping spree last week.  Anyway, it's sooo sooooft, and from a new to me vendor, KnittyandColor.  I'm going to need to do some experimenting with this, as I don't want to the separate colors to get muddied. 

I've also done a bit more on the great wheel:

What a fun spin!

Today I was out in the woodshop for a brief time, and fiddled with turning a spinning 'puck' out of a leftover piece from turning. 

I twirled one of my Baataras in it, and it seemed to like it. :-)  I definitely need practice in turning these though.  I think I'll work on my Baatara project tonight and give the puck a good test-drive.  Next up on the lathe are experiments: a wool finger for my great wheel as I'm curious about them, and a wrist distaff, as I'm going to need some kind of wrist distaff if I end up spinning that lovely turquoise fiber on a spindle and I'm curious how the wooden distaves work.
 


And for my sister: