Spin-Well


 I am delighted to introduce the newest wheel in my studio. This is a Spin-well.  Made in Sifton, Manitoba, Canada, the wheels were first made in the 1930s and continued to be made for some years.



 There are three original bobbins plus the clamp on lazy kate plus an orifice hook. You can see the metal flyer. I think even this drive band is original.


I cleaned up the wheel and bobbins with Murphy's Oil Soap today and the wheel spins very well indeed. The name is apt.


The wide treadle is very comfortable and I can work it with either foot or with both. There is a very soft "ka-chunk" as the axle makes a revolution.


The original owner was Ruth Pierce of Blessing, Texas. I know that she was a spinner and a weaver.
At an estate sale in Fredericksburg, TX  af few years back I purchased a whole lot of the things from her weaving studio. At that time I did not need any more wheels.
On that day, a friend of mine, M.S. purchased this wheel. Yesterday she sold it to me.


The tensioning system is so simple and yet so effective: a wing nut and slider.


Unique to my wheel are the tens of autographs from spinners who were in the guild with Ruth Pierce.
When I cleaned the wheel I was careful to avoid putting any cleaner on the drive wheel.


Here is some of the wool I am spinning up quite merrily.


This sticker at the back right support shows the two ratios as determined by Ruth Pierce.


Here you can see more of the signatures. Yes I am adding my name to those of other guild members.


The wheel appears to be maple and in very good shape. I am very happy to welcome this workhorse into my stable of wheels.

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 19, 2016 at 8:19 PM

    I have a Spinwell I picked up at a flea market and I managed to spin up some wool on it but I can't figure out how to ply it. I make the wheel go the other way. I can get the wool to ply. But I can't get it to wind on the bobbin. I have to stop everything and manually turn the bobbin so that the plied wool winds on it. Any advice? A video would be even better!

    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