Call me a Muckle-head

Here's some shots of my (ahem, mom's) walking wheel, otherwise called a great wheel or muckle wheel.

Here she is, my guess about 200 yrs old.

This is the miner's head (aka muckle head or accelerator head) that was replaced. The bottom portion is an original/antique, the top part of the side posts (maidens) and the double wheel were recreated to finish it off. Yes, that's me spinning on it with lime green wool. Sheep are hard to come by in that color. :) Note my little guy in the background holding a spindle & bobbin; at least he's not pretending it's a sword. Sleeping Beauty wouldn't stand a chance with him around.

Another view of the miner's head. It's amazing that all wood parts can work as well as they do, albeit tempermentally.

I've enjoyed the learning process involved with aquiring this wheel. But it's another great case of "the more you learn the less you know." Take my wool, for example. I spun it on a drop spindle with no problems, but feel that it's not prepared well enough for this type of wheel; it needs to be combed out a bit more. I met a spinner from the area who has a similar wheel who attested to the moody nature of these great wheels. She also suggested that plying would be difficult if not impossible (sounds like a challenge to overcome!!).

My biggest difficulting in using this wheel is not technical at all, but rather human-related. As in all the little humans hovering about who wish to "help" spin that big wheel for mom! So yarn production has been very slow due to overabundance of helpers. But perhaps we'll set to work and sew up a bunch of colonial costumes for the family - I can spin while the kids embroider and work the garden and Steve chops wood. We can even charge admission. I think people would pay to see Steve chop wood. Hey, I'd pay to watch him chop wood, especially since we don't even own an axe!

Spinning on Walking Wheel

I have been experimenting this afternoon with my "new" spinning wheel - it's a great wheel, or walking wheel, that I brought out of storage at my parents' house. My best guess is that it dates to the late 1700's or early 1800's. After replacing some missing parts, it is now up and running, er, walking, whatever. At least the wheel is; the operator has a bit of learning to do yet! I managed to spin about 10 yards of what is essentially super fine thread this afternoon. Not sure how that will work out for knitting eventually, but it's wool that's been twisted, so I call it a success. I'm finding out that the wheel is as tempermental as its spinner can be, which isn't necessarily a good combination.



Here's an idea of what a walking wheel looks like:




My biggest problem is the main drive band doesn't grab at the large wheel and occaisionally falls off. It's very frustrating to hold tension on 2 yards of spun wool with one hand and try to put the drive band around the 45" diameter wheel with the other! My other issues center around a spindle that slides around and basic operator error.