GREAT Weekend!!!

I imagine I must have mentioned, if not here then at least in some of my forums, that I would be going to a Pioneer Museum event last weekend. This was something that K found out about and arranged. The deal was, they already had a spinner and didn't need any more, but they were happy to have us come out in costume and knit for the weekend. The venue was the Pioneer Florida Museum in Dade City, FL.

It's a great site, and they have a dozen or so buildings which have been rescued from other locations and moved to their little "town". Sadly I did not charge my batteries before going, so I have some pictures, but several that I wanted to take are not here. When we arrived, we were directed to the John Overstreet house, a lovely two story colonial built in the mid 1860's. The porch had a wooden porchswing, a stationary bench, and several other chairs. K and I took up residence on the porchswing end, since we were the first to arrive. She in a chair and I on the swing. We covered our non-authentics (Mickey Mouse tote bag and a Playmate cooler!) with a plaid blanket and sat down to knit.

The residents of the other end of the porch were a corn straw broom-maker and her mother, who was quilting. Each room of the house was set up with a little period display for people to look at as they walked through. Also found in the house, on the second floor, was a Great Wheel. Later conversation indicated that this was a working wheel.

K and I took turns walking around to see some of the displays and such. She went to find the spinner first, and directed me when I went for my walk. The spinner was a lovely lady who lives locally, spinning on an Ashford Traditional in a room full of antique sewing machines and spinning wheels. I took stock of her room while chatting with her...there were three great wheels in various states, and an antique Saxony sitting high on a shelf in one corner. The Saxony was missing the footman, but otherwise looked to be in good condition. There was a Great in the closet underneath it. Wheel was beautiful, but the upright and spindle/miner's head were missing entirely. On the other side of the room were two more Greats, one with it's drive band wrapped around the wheel shaft, the other with no band. Both seemed to have complete spindles. Talked with G for a while - she was trying to get us to bring our wheels the next day and come spin with her...only one problem - it was an hour and a half drive to each of our houses to get wheels. K tried to talk her DH into bringing both her Saxony and Lendrum, but he wasn't having any part of it. Said goodbye to G and that we'd be back the next day to drop in.

Saturday night we stayed in a local hotel...checked in in costume...when we came back from dinner, the desk clerk quipped "Oh, you changed clothes!" On Sunday we were off again. It was a little cooler and downright chilly in the shade on the porch. I decided to see the other half of the compound that I hadn't visited Saturday, so went to visit the church:

Then visited the little red one-room schoolhouse...

Was up in the front of the main checkin building when a man came in to talk to the front cashier, asking where he could find the "spinners"...well, of course my ears perked up, though I didn't say anything since officially I was a "knitter" for the weekend. She sent him around to G's room, so I quickly wandered out and down the path to drop in for a visit...

Turned out he had 300 lbs of Alpaca Fleece, and he was looking for someone who would sit in his friend's antique shop in town and spin it!!! His friend would get the benefit of having a spinner in house for atmosphere, and the spinner would be able to sell the spun yarn in the shop to make a little extra money. Ah, if only it wasn't an hour + drive to get to that town!!!

Anyhow, he left after a bit and I got to talking with G again. I was once again eyeing the wheels, and looking over the Greats. The more I looked, the more it looked like the one with the drive band might actually be spinnable! So, I convinced G to let me/help me turn it around (the spinning side was against the wall). We unwound the drive band and slid it onto the wheel. A turn or two and it fell off. We had already discovered that the wheel pivoted on it's axis....when we turned it around, the wheel ended up at a 30' angle to the base! So, we adjusted the angle a little more to try to keep the band on, and it worked!! G handed me a ball of fiber and I borrowed a bit of spun yarn for a leader, and tied it onto the spindle. Last year I had seen one of these spun very briefly, and had actually attempted to spin on it myself, so I had a tiny bit of a clue what I was doing (but only that!). It was definitely a little creaky, and the spindle didn't want to reverse very well... After spinning on it for a while, it was getting louder, so I borrowed the oil bottle from G and put a couple of drops inside each of the leather straps supporting the spindle, and a couple under the drive band where it connected with the spindle (it was a direct drive, not an accelerated head). Continued spinning and WOW! All of a sudden backing it off was a BREEZE! It definitely needed that little bit of oil!

I did finally go up and get K and let her know where I was/invite her back down. She came with. At that point she took this picture for me...the last one before the batteries died!

The wool is a merino/mohair blend, raised by G's friend in Massachusetts. He handwashes it, then indigo dyes, then combs into lovely lightweight roving. It's got just a touch of lanolin in it (part of G's schtick...getting the kids to feel the lanolin then telling them what it is). It spins great, and was a perfect fiber for the long draw needed for the Great Wheel. K came down to visit with us and hung out for a little while. She brought a drop spindle, so at one point we had a drop spindle, and Great, and a Traditional all going at once. It was fun to talk the evolution of spinning with all of the cool demos going on.

K got tired and went back to the porch (sadly it was a little close in the room...especially with three of us in there spinning). I planned to go back...really I did... The Great just totally pulled me in. G went to lunch...and came back...and still I was spinning. I finally decided to go to lunch, then someone came and asked how the Great worked....so I demo'd again... I did finally go eat...around 2ish! Overall, I think I spent about 4 hours spinning!

Then came the next challenge...what to do with the single that I'd spun?! Since there was nothing on the spindle, I really didn't have any way to slide it off and retain the shape. I wasn't really sure how I would go about plying on the Great either for that matter. I did have a nice sturdy, if somewhat "fuzzy" single. I think the Great lends itself to a more "woolen" fiber, since you aren't guiding/smoothing with the second hand. So, decided to wind it off onto my hand in an Andean style.
I did mention that my camera had died, right? So right near the end of the day this man comes along, asking about what I was doing, etc. He asks me if I read "The Laker"...turns out it's a local paper. For which he works. He asked to take my picture and said it might get published (G said she'd send me a copy if she saw it - since I live totally out of the area of that paper). I agreed and gave him my card so he could email it.

Finally got it all wound off...and it was 3:40. Twenty minutes to ply 180 yards of single into a 90 yard two-ply...spinning backwards on a Great Wheel... I tried it. Really. Plyed about two yards and changed my mind. Wound it back to my hand, slid the whole thing around my wrist (ok, so it was already there), and packed up our stuff. Packed the car, drove an hour back to meet K's DH, sat down at a restaurant and had dinner, then drove another half hour home. Yes, still with my big fat yarny bracelet. Got home, plied it on my antique Saxony (so it was still plied on a period wheel), then wound it off onto the Niddy Noddy. Ended up with right around 85 yards...to 1 3/8 ounces. Here's the skein:

And here's a closeup:

As I mentioned, you can definitely see that this is a more woolen yarn. Now I have to figure out what I can do with 85 yards of fingering/dk weight yarn - and what in a "colonial period" context.

So, what now? G has told us all about the event that they do on Labor Day weekend, which tends to draw a lot more kids. This event was in large part a Draft Horse pull and Tractor pull competition, as well as a quilt show, and therefore tended to draw an older crowd. Even though the temps will be a lot higher in September, the Great Wheel draws to me... I'm very inclined to come out for Labor Day just to spin on it again... We really enjoyed showing people the amount of work I was doing, then comparing that to G with her seated, treadled wheel and flyer uptake.

Oh...and there's something else... I WANT MY OWN GREAT WHEEL!!! This doesn't sound like such a huge request, unless you've seen my apartment...or my car... I live in a studio apt. 450 sq feet. It's small. It's crowded. There's really no way I can spin on a Great in my apt. But... I could take it to demo events and show it off THERE!! And I could hang the wheel from hooks on my wall... So I'd only have to find storage space for the base... Am I insane? I know someone who has a Great that she's been wanting to sell for the past two years...and there's another on Craig's list that looks pretty good too... Oh, and I have even more inspiration since I found this amazing wonderful, inspiring blog.