Tuesday, March 8, 2011

My spinning wheel adventures

I wanted to let people see what I'm doing with the wheel and I think this is going to be the best avenue for that. I brought the wheel home from my mom's house this Sunday. It's beautiful and I'm so glad to have it.

There was a part broken, but luckily Darrell was able to glue it together and it is holding for now.

My grandfather made it the same year I was born. So technically it isn't an antique (right??), but it isn't a new fangled expensive one either.


But I don't know the first thing about wheels or spinning. But thankfully Tracy volunteered to help me out learning all there is to know about these things. She came today and we fiddled a bit with it.

Here's a bit of spun wool on it. But when we were spinning, me first to no great result, and Tracy second to no really fabulous result either. We decided that the wood was so dry and needed some hydration. Tracy was totally impressed with the craftsmanship, but there were a few things that just weren't working as well as she was sure worked really well when it was made. There were little things that really made her excited. Like these removeable pieces that hold the wheel in place.

So she told me all the things I needed to do to get it cleaned and shiny and hydrated.
So I'm taking it apart and washing it all down with Murphy's Oil Soap. Tomorrow I will be applying the first coat of Boiled Linseed Oil. Then I'm going to put it back together and see how well it's spinning.

I filed the inside of the spools so they fit better on the wheel thingy. And I filed and steel wooled the rust off the metal pieces. I can't wait for it all to be finished.

I'm gonna have to learn the technical terms soon. I'm still refering to things as the THINGYs all the time!