Stevie and Sila

Here are my two Kromski spinning wheels. The wheel on the left is the Minstrel model. I bought it new in November 2011. I have been spinning on it every day since then. The beauty on the right is the Polonaise, acquired used, just this week. On top of continuing to spin on the Minstrel, I have two bobbins full on the Polonaise already as well. I adore both these wheels.

Instead of calling the wheels "this" and "that" I gave them names. The Minstrel I named "Stevie" for Stevie Ray Vaughn, my favourite blues musician and favourite guitarist. I'll be taking this wheel north to Canada, and so it will remind me of my southern home. Double Trouble with this double treadle , double drive.
The Polonaise wheel then required a northern name, as it will be left in the south. After some careful thought I selected the name Sila, an Inuit word. In common everyday language it refers to the air, the weather, the sky. It also means "breath of life" and "method of locomotion for any movement or change". I like that. So Sila it is.

Now I want to come up with a unique name for the 1750s antique wheel. It reminds me of my heritage as a Lithuanian; a nation with a long history of spinning and weaving.
Any suggestions?

Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 12, 2012 at 5:33 PM

    Lillian for Lithunanian :-)
    VT

    ReplyDelete
  2. Arctic-mermaidMarch 13, 2012 at 6:59 PM

    Hey! Not bad.
    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lynn Landry-RodyNovember 8, 2012 at 7:51 PM

    Very sweet blog Jurate.
    The flowers are beautiful. It's gonna be awhile until we see some around here again. Argghhh! It already feels like its been a long winter...
    Your spinning wheels are beautiful.
    You have carved a lovely life for yourself methinks...

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Medico Loom by Leclerc

Image
Here's the newest addition to my Painted Floor Studio. This is a Medico table loom, manufactured by Leclerc, a Canadian company. Research suggests this loom was manufactured for WWII veterans to use. As such it utilizes hand levers for changing the shed. But as you can clearly see in this picture, I have the floor stand which includes six treadles, essentially making it a floor loom.  The maximum weaving width is 22 inches. When I bought this loom last week it came with the blue and white warp on there already. I decided to just play with it, getting the hang of the levers and treadles. I figured out how the previous owner had the tie-ups done, and then "went with it."  Altogether I wound up with a piece of fabric about ten feet long. I will either cut it into bits and sew small bags out of it, or maybe use most of it for a scarf. In this photo you can see the four hand levers (silver) in the top right corner of the loom. In the top centre area of the loom...
Read more

What's old is new again

Image
Recently the talk of the Fiber Prep group on Ravelry is about "blending boards". It's like a drum carder, but without the drum. A flat surface covered in carding cloth. During the same week this was impressing many on Ravelry, hubby and I were in a thrift store where he spotted this! Naturally it had to come with me. (This model is not the same as what the current buzz is about.) So it is a heavy wooden box construction, with a separate handle that also has carding cloth on it. The manufacturer is Louet, a good name in spinning circles. A little vacuuming to clean out the remains from the previous owner and I was ready to roll. Here is the end on view, so you can see how the two sets of tines are proximal to one another. The batts in the back ground came off of an Ashford drum carder. And here is a view of the pegs on the handle which help to guide you in a straight path and you sweep away from yourself. In this image you can just see two wool locks ...
Read more

Ulla Cyrus Loom

Image
Get a look at what followed me home recently! I have gleefully adopted " Courage "  - my new addition to the family. WELCOME. The original owner of this loom was William Dyer, a famous weaver who lived in California and Washington State. He made very fine damasks with this loom.   A very large loom manufactured by Oxaback in Sweden. The model is called "Ulla Cyrus". It is a vertical countermarch with 16 shafts and 18 treadles. Plus it has the additional, optional unit draw and pattern shaft draw. Two different drawloom attachments. The weaving width is 63 inches.  I picked up this beauty in the north part of Texas, and the loom was already disassembled. This photo shows just a fraction of the gear. It was great fun to meet the current owner. Here we have returned home and both the box of the truck and the 5 x 12  landscape trailer are entirely filled with loom pieces. Completely. It is a lot of gear. And this is a glimpse at a small p...
Read more