Isn’t this a lovely wheel that has come here to live? I’m learning so much as I clean and oil and start to spin. In free moments, I search for who and what. This shape seems to appear in both Normandy and Tyrollean wheels. From the emphasis on ornamentation combined with minimal wear, I suspect she is an antique parlor wheel from a middle class family. I would love to hear her story.

She is a bobbin lead and really does seem to be set up solely for flax (or other bast fibres such as the hemp I’m currently spinning). I don’t quite know what to do with a distaff yet and I don’t think it’s complete. Like many things……this is all a work in progress.