Spinning on a Great Wheel

Great Wheel beside a modern treadle wheel

A couple of months ago I shared the story of finding and restoring a Great Wheel. Similar Great Wheels existed from medieval times. The American Colonists revived them when England started its shenanigans with the Wool Act of 1699, and it became patriotic to produce and wear only their own cloth right up through the Revolution and beyond.

The Great Wheel I bought had no lacquer, shellac, or vanish on it. It had been stained and most likely oiled to preserve the wood. According to my research, that dates it pre-1850s. He's an old one, but he spins the same today as he did more than 165 years ago. 

Most people mistakenly think the wheel does the spinning, but it doesn't. The actual spinning of fibers into thread or yarn happens in the spinner's hands. The wheel does only two things; it creates the twist, and it stores the spun fibers. 

As the drive band runs around the large wheel, it also turns the small spindle. Yarn, attached to the spindle, is twisted. That twist runs up the length of yarn and begins to twist with the unspun fibers in the spinner's hands. The spinner controls how much fiber is gathered into the twist before drawing it out into a continuous thread. 

Sound complicated? It's not. It just takes practice. In this age of digital everything, spinning is so basic and simple, it's almost hard to grasp. 

Dark llama fibers being spun on the Great Wheel

Once the spinner has drawn out a comfortable arm's length of thread, it is wound onto the quill or bobbin (depending on the style of the spinning wheel) and stored there while the spinner continues to draw out more thread. The process is repeated over and over again in a soothing pattern of back and forth.

On the Great Wheel, the spinner turns the large wheel with one hand, while holding the unspun fibers in the other. With a treadle wheel, the spinner has both hands free to work the fibers while their foot - or feet for a double-treadle wheel - turns the wheel.

Once the spinner has filled two quills or bobbins, those threads will be twisted together in the opposite direction to make a 2-ply yarn. Most fibers are spun clockwise and plied counter-clockwise. The 2-ply yarn is then washed, dyed if color is desired, hung to dry, and then it's ready to be woven or knitted into useful items for the spinner's household.

PeggThomas.com

Debut story will release in April 2017 from Barbour

The Great Wheel By Pegg Thomas

Restored Great Wheel

The first spinning wheel I ever spun on was a Great Wheel. That was back in 1978 when I was still in high school. I've never forgotten the experience of working on a living legend of history. Also known as a Wool Wheel or a Walking Wheel, it's an amazingly simple machine used to create thread or yarn. 

For years I have scouted around eBay and Craigslist, quietly drooling into my lap, knowing I'd never be able to justify the $300 - $800 to purchase one of these beautiful, functional pieces. Until last month. I saw a photo on Craigslist of a Great Wheel that looked - frankly - too good to be true. Priced at only $85, and located in the same town as Michelle, friend of mine, it was worth a phone call. 

I spoke to an elderly couple who said a friend had put the ad on Craigslist for them and that they didn't have a way to text me any photographs. Hearing this, I was pretty sure the photo in the ad was not the actual wheel for sale. But I called Michelle and she happily agreed to go look at the wheel, take photos with her phone, and text them to me. I called the couple back and told them I'd be purchasing this sight unseen, and asked what the lowest price they'd be willing to take was. I was shocked - and thrilled! - when they said $50. Michelle arranged to meet with them in a couple of days.

I waited on pins and needles.

The Great Wheel as first assembled.

My phone beeped and the photo confirmed my suspicion. The wheel was not the same as the one in the ad. I asked Michelle to see if the wheel turned freely, if the base felt solid, and to take a photo of the spindle. It wasn't assembled correctly, but I could see that all the parts were there.

Michelle bought the wheel and took it home. Then I had to wait a week to make the trip across the state to pick it up. It was like Christmas Eve that whole week. While I'd seen the photos, that can only tell so much about an antique. I still didn't know exactly what I'd bought or if I'd be able to restore it to working condition.

We arrived to pick up the wheel and my heart bobbled for a moment when I saw the gray/brown condition of the wood. But all the pieces were there. Michelle had disassembled it to transport it, since it wouldn't fit into a vehicle otherwise. We put the wheel and the bench in the back of our truck, and the spindle assembly in the back seat. It was an agonizingly long 5 1/2 hour drive home before I could put it all together.

Put it together I did, before falling into bed and dreaming of how to restore this beauty to some semblance of his former glory. I'd spent a great deal of time the past week researching Great Wheels. I knew by the lack of lacquer or shellac, it had most likely been made pre-1850. I sure didn't want to mess this up.

The next morning I cleaned it and applied a beeswax product to the wood. It soaked up more than half of a 16-ounce bottle of the wax. But with each brush of the cloth, a stunningly beautiful wood was exposed. With a few gentle and careful taps of a hammer, I was able to reset the nail heads that had worked up along the face of the wheel. I was thrilled. Even if it never spun, it was gorgeous to look at.

The spindle with a white paper quill attached,
black llama fibers spun into yarn.

The following day amid a flurry of errands I had to run, I stopped into a local craft store and bought a strip of leather to make the bearings the spindle would turn on. They had exactly what I needed. But I had to run more errands, meet with a neighbor, and then a repairman before I could put the final piece of the wheel together. Once the spindle was attached, I made a drive belt out of a piece of thick cotton string, waxed it, and held my breath. 

It took a little tweaking to get the wheel aligned with the spindle and to get the tensions set correctly, but within minutes ... I was spinning! Excited? Yeah, you bet. And thrilled to have salvaged this old wheel for many more years to come.

PeggThomas.com

Debut story releasing in The Pony Express Romance Collection (April 2017) available now for pre-order from Barbour Publishing.