![\"IMG_20140510_190423_clr_trm_sm\"](\"http:\/\/blog.tangledstrands.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/IMG_20140510_190423_clr_trm_sm.jpg\")
<\/a>Meet Penelope, the newest addition to my fibery machine family.\u00c2\u00a0 He liked her so he brought her home anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a good thing he’s not a dog\/cat rescuer – we’d be overrun with animals.\u00c2\u00a0 It turns out that I like her too, so it was a sweet deal.<\/p>\nI spent the next day on the Internet looking up everything I could about antique spinning wheels – styles, construction, parts, how they work, care and feeding, etc.\u00c2\u00a0 From what I can tell, this is a saxony style wheel with Nordic\/Scandinavian details.\u00c2\u00a0 Not surprising, with the large Nordic heritage in the communities here.\u00c2\u00a0 There is no maker’s mark, so I don’t know where it was manufactured or when.\u00c2\u00a0 What I did determine very quickly is this: it’s a functioning wheel that’s missing some key parts.\u00c2\u00a0 The experts say this isn’t unusual with an antique wheel.\u00c2\u00a0 The drive band is gone, but easily replaceable.\u00c2\u00a0 The flyer is also missing, but the spindle, orifice, whorl, and bobbin are still present and functional.<\/p>\n
Since the spindle is still there, we thought it might be easy to make a new flyer.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, it really needs to be balanced and all that.\u00c2\u00a0 And yes, it should be done by a professional.\u00c2\u00a0 But I am not a professional spinner.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m a tinkerer, and just want to figure it out.\u00c2\u00a0 So I took some measurements and made a drawing.\u00c2\u00a0 Husband took my drawing and worked it up on the computer, then spit it out on his 3D printer.\u00c2\u00a0 Any excuse to use the printer!\u00c2\u00a0 I took the same drawing and made a crude one out of wood.<\/p>\n
The Husband strikes again!\u00c2\u00a0 This time he was taking the adventurous, scenic route home from a shopping trip and came across an interesting looking estate sale.\u00c2\u00a0 I was off knitting with friends, so I received text messages like… “how do … Continue reading <\/a>I threaded the wheel with a new drive band made of some leftover cotton yarn I had in the stash.\u00c2\u00a0 The Internet suggested this as the preferred method, as the bands stretch out with use and need to be replaced frequently anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 Then we compared our flyers.\u00c2\u00a0 Mine was unusable, as the bore hole I made slipped around the spindle.\u00c2\u00a0 The hole for the spindle needed to be square to match the spindle shaft where they meet.\u00c2\u00a0 Husband’s printed flyer works much better, as it was made in two parts then screwed together so it fits tightly around the spindle.\u00c2\u00a0 I added some cup hooks along one side and away she went!<\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a>Penelope and I have since figured out how to work together.\u00c2\u00a0 The wheel needs a balance of tension, speed, and rhythm and I’m still perfecting each part of the equation.\u00c2\u00a0 For my first try, I spun some lovely painted BFL<\/a> (Bluefaced Leicester – a specific sheep breed) into a variegated two-ply yarn.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s so soft and fluffy that I think I’ll knit it up into a pair of fingerless mitts for myself.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"