THE SPINNING WHEEL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22139, 19 June 1935, Page 5

THE SPINNING WHEEL

UTILITARIAN USES EXPERIMENTS IN COLOUR BY COUNTIIY SPINSTER No. IV. Most of us have seen a spinning wheel—usually as a drawing room ornament, and thought how romantic it looked, but comparatively few of us have realised that it is also a highly practical object. We have heard tales of how our great-grandmothers used to spin and weave the family clothing. It is amazing how quickly you can make enough yarn for a pair of socks or a jumper, if you have your spinning wheel standing handy, with a box of rolags, and just spin up one or two while you wait for the kettle to boil. The most obvious part of the apparatus is merely a treadle turning a wheel, and differs in different types of wheel, but your treadle sewing machine would do equally well. If you are not used to a treadle machine you will be wise to practise first working the pedal and make sure that you can regulate the turning as you wish, but do not let it suddenly stop and reverse. The treadle turns a large wheel, which then turns a smaller one connected with a shaft carrying a bobbin, and on this the spun thread winds itself, passing sideways over hooks on a stirrup, and thence out through an eye at the end of the shaft. This part corresponds to the spindle. The bobbin —

in the English type of wheel, has a groove on the far end in which a string runs to a peg and a spring; this can be tightened or loosened, by twisting the string round the peg and so stretching the spring, and it is most important to get just the right amount of tension, because this decides how fast the spun thread runs on to the bobbin. In spinning with a wheel the thread is twisted as it comes out of the eye in the shaft by the bobbin, with the stirrup rotating while yoji hold the thread firmly. When you let the thread run on to the bobbin, the stirrup rotates faster than the bobbin and so winds the thread on. Your tension should be. just enough for you to unwind the bobbin with a pull too weak to break the thread. If it is too loose and the thread unwinds quite freely it will twist

and not wind on the bobbin. If it is too tight, it will run on so fast that it is not twisted enough to bo strong. Start with sonic spun wool—what you have made on the spindle will do — and tie one end firmly round the bobbin; take the other end sideways over one of the hooks in the stirrup and out through the eye toward you. Pull gently on this and regulate your tension 80 that it winds slowly on to the bobbin when you let it run through your fingers as you turn the wheel. Then take a rolag of carded wool, just as with the spindle, hold it on the ! spun end with your left thumb and forefinger, and give the wheel a turn. The ends will twist if you hold them still, smoothing the loose threads toward the wheel with your right hand. Then pinch this end of the twisted thread with your right hand and with the loft gently draw out the rolag to the left until you have about a foot of the right thickness. Open the right hand and the twist will come through and make that length into a spun thread, the extension of the twist into the rolag being stopped by your left hand. Then turn the wheel again and let that spun bit run on to the bobbin. Do it quite slowly at first, just a little at a time, always keeping the right hand as a brake between the finished thread and what you want to draw out before letting it twist, and using the left finger and thumb similarly to prevent the twist getting into the rolag. When you can do this without either letting the thread break or letting so much twist get into the rolag that it knots up instead of pulling out a few threads at a time, then you can increase your speed and, letting a little twist come through your right hand, pull out a longer loose thread from the rolag, keeping a tapering end in your left thumb and forefinger. Soon you will find that by regulating the amount of twist let through by the right hand, and the rate of pulling out with the

left, you can keep a long moderately twisted thread between your hands, its twist pulling out the threads Irom the rolag automatically. Between your right hand and the eye this becomes more tightly twisted, and you can let it run through continuously on to the bobbin. When you can do this smoothly you will find that it is best to let the rolag lie over your left forearm with the working end coming between thumb and palm, regulated there by the thumb, while the tapering end lies on (lie leit forefinger; this pulls out by the twist, and goes on twisting and running 011 to the bobbin all at the same time. The books 011 the stirrup regulate the part of the bobbin wound, and the thread must be moved from one to another so that the bobbin iills evenly. When one bobbin is full, you can either wind the one-ply made into a ball, or take the bobbin off and replace it. To do this you will find that you must first get the stirrup off the shaft—it screws off or just pulls free —and then slip the brake string from the bobbin and slip the bobbin off the shaft. In wheels of the Continental types the braking is done by a second small wheel behind the bobbin, and the whole shaft is removed from the belt connecting these with the big wheel.

This small wheel then unscrews and the bobbin slips off the far end, leaving the stirrup attached to the shaft. This one-ply can be used as it is for weaving or knitting, but it is apt to twist back 011 itself and tangle, and it is better to make two-ply from two balls. If you have three bobbins, which is more convenient, you can make a stand out of a small box with holes bored in the sides for strong wires 011 which the bobbins are slung so that they let the thread come off freely. Tie the two ends together, thread them into the eye from yourself toward the wheel, take them round a hook in the

stirrup and tie them firmly round the bobbin. Then spin them together just as in the original spinning, hut —it took me some time to discover this —you must turn tho wheel the opposite way, and have the tension a little tighter than before, so that the thread winds on faster and twists less tightly. If you have two different colours you will be able to see just how tight a twist .vou want. It takes a little practice to get this kept the same throughout, and if it varies, the finished thread looks different when kitted or woven. A good plan is to use the natural black wool for one ball, white the other. A jumper made of this mixture, with trimmings of two-ply double white and double black looks excellent, or grey and white in the same way, the grey being got by carding black and white mixed together. All sorts of combinations with dyed wool will occur to you, and you will find it great fun to experiment with variations.