Today, a short post because, Bear and I married 20 years ago today, and we've just got home from a family dinner at a local pizza cafe with the bear cubs and put them to bed, and well - there is goood, and I mean goooood bubbly to celebrate with, and I love you all but I've loved him longest. But first, in the last 2 days I learned an amazing new thing, and because its what I do, I'm sharing it with you. This thing make a kind of clunky spinning wheel sing, I thought it was a pretty amazing yet so simple a thing.
I bought a new 'old' book, for a few dollars on line ($NZ4), The New Zealand Woolcraft Book, Spinning, Dying, Weaving, by Constance Jackson and Judith Plowman. Sorry I can' find a good stable link, they are all for auction sites so you will have to search for it on your own. Well what a gem, the first two chapters are on spinning wheels, and on how to set one up and diagnose problems on double drive and scotch tension wheels. The Wing wheel I just bought was ok, but heavy going to treadle and I couldn't get the yarn to feed on nicely, it either didn't feed at all or feed onto the bobbin at high speed. When I bought it the previous owner said she used it mostly for plying and I can see now that would be the easiest way to use it. The Wing is a nice compact and pretty wheel.
Back to the book, I was reading away last night and on page 25 found
"On some spinning wheels, particularly antique wheels, the groove in the bobbin is not U-shaped, and consequently a bulky drive band with not allow the bobbin to slip. A finer drive band will be necessary."
Something twigged, the whorl grooves on the Wing wheel are clearly V shaped not U shaped, all those grooves are most clearly V's. Thats the Wing whorl groves in the first image, and yet the drive band in use on them was thicker than that I had on the Ashford.
Compare with the generous curves on the Ashford bobbin whorl, very U and not at all V. But the flyer whorls are both V's - now I get it, thats for grip. Inspired by my $4 book I replaced the thick string drive band with a thin crochet cotton one and wow, the Wing now sings, plus I now have the slippage needed to let the bobbin do its thing.
Here is a closer comparison of the two drive bands, you can see the almost 2mm thick Wing band compared to the replacement band, a mere 1mm. Who would have thought that 1mm extra width would have made such a difference to the performance?
And I have not started the shrug yet, I've been dutifully doing my spinning home-work and my cable swatch home-work. This is the start of my fourth sample, the 'cable suspended in the middle of a stocking stitch ground' one. But enough for now, those little bubbles are twinkling in the twilight, in a two tall sparkley glasses ...
I bought a new 'old' book, for a few dollars on line ($NZ4), The New Zealand Woolcraft Book, Spinning, Dying, Weaving, by Constance Jackson and Judith Plowman. Sorry I can' find a good stable link, they are all for auction sites so you will have to search for it on your own. Well what a gem, the first two chapters are on spinning wheels, and on how to set one up and diagnose problems on double drive and scotch tension wheels. The Wing wheel I just bought was ok, but heavy going to treadle and I couldn't get the yarn to feed on nicely, it either didn't feed at all or feed onto the bobbin at high speed. When I bought it the previous owner said she used it mostly for plying and I can see now that would be the easiest way to use it. The Wing is a nice compact and pretty wheel.
Back to the book, I was reading away last night and on page 25 found
"On some spinning wheels, particularly antique wheels, the groove in the bobbin is not U-shaped, and consequently a bulky drive band with not allow the bobbin to slip. A finer drive band will be necessary."
Something twigged, the whorl grooves on the Wing wheel are clearly V shaped not U shaped, all those grooves are most clearly V's. Thats the Wing whorl groves in the first image, and yet the drive band in use on them was thicker than that I had on the Ashford.
Compare with the generous curves on the Ashford bobbin whorl, very U and not at all V. But the flyer whorls are both V's - now I get it, thats for grip. Inspired by my $4 book I replaced the thick string drive band with a thin crochet cotton one and wow, the Wing now sings, plus I now have the slippage needed to let the bobbin do its thing.
Here is a closer comparison of the two drive bands, you can see the almost 2mm thick Wing band compared to the replacement band, a mere 1mm. Who would have thought that 1mm extra width would have made such a difference to the performance?
And I have not started the shrug yet, I've been dutifully doing my spinning home-work and my cable swatch home-work. This is the start of my fourth sample, the 'cable suspended in the middle of a stocking stitch ground' one. But enough for now, those little bubbles are twinkling in the twilight, in a two tall sparkley glasses ...
4 comments:
Congratulations! First, on your discovery and recovery of the key to the Wing's performance and second, on your 20th anniversary. May you enjoy many, many more together!
Happy anniversary! Imagine me raising a glass in your honor; here's to many more wonderful years.
I laughed heartily at your title! =) Who knew the groove thing? cool Oh yeah, happy anniversary, too, 20 years!
Happy versary! We got married the same year! But mine didn't last 20years. So thats a good book then, I've seen it a lot on TM - must get it now.
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