LOOMS old and new

More spinning wheels and loom

Since my last post on here a couple of years back some more equipment seems to have found me. This year I purchased a minty wool picker, two Scandinavian double drive spinning wheels and a 47" weaving width countermarche Varpapuu loom.

LATEST SPINNING WHEELS

Two new additions to the Skyfield herd this year are these, both from the same source in the Midlands, decorating a pub interior.... both Scandinavian, maybe Finnish and Norwegian. The lovely brown one in the foreground,  is quite delicate and seems very feminine, takes a bit of tinkering to adjust to not throwing the drive belt, but when right spins beautifully about 12 to 1, would be great for a longest thread contest as so gentle a pull in. I have named her Quenilda, a name from my husbands ancestors.

The black one (I`ve named 'The Colt') is quite handsome and stoutly built, made for real production, again 12 to 1 and as good if not better than any modern wheel, I like how the black has worn from where long skirts have rubbed over the years and the foot shape worn into Quenildas treadle.

Two newbies at the front,  25'' wheels,Canadian Production wheel at the back, 30'' wheel and my Welsh spinning chair enjoying an airing in the sunshine.
Am using a standard Timbertops flyer on 'Colt' fits well and a bit smoother than the original, plus I have plenty of bobbins.

new to me macomber loom

Latest new to me loom

A month or so ago this mighty loom found me,  A Varpapuu 47" weaving width Finlandia countermarche loom with 8 shafts and treadles. It was looking for a new home in a hurry so I had to rearrange my already overfull workshop to accomodate it. I put up a tent outside and hastily filled it with yarn stash, fleece and all the rest in order to make some space, it also came with a massive Dryad warping mill which for now is propped up in the pony stable.

After much crawling and squinting at the tie up instructions and tweaking and removing 4 of the shafts I have managed to produce this bit of work ....

Handweavings

I have been making bags, rugs, wraps, stoles and tapestries etc on this old upright 2 shaft Harris rugloom and having great fun with it. I went to collect it from the Leeds area last year and its definately a vast improvement from the old bed frame loom. Also came across a lucky find of many cones of rug wool to incorporate with my own handspun.

new niddy noddy

This morning I went to my local all things yarn and spinning shop and found this lovely carved and shaped niddy noddy. It looks Scandinavian, would love to know who it was made by, it rests beautifully in the hand, has a little peg to take out in order to slip the skein off.