Seabreeze Spinners

We launched a new fiber studio which has been created on the campus of Palma Sola Presbyterian Church in Bradenton, Florida last Saturday. We were felting, spinning, spindling and talkin’, a lot. Fun for all.

Our next meet up is Friday, July 20 @ 10:00.

Anyone in the neighborhood is invited to bring a portable project to sew, weave, knit, mend, spin, bead, scrapbook… Come on your own or bring a friend.

Exodus 35:25 And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen.

*A ministry of Palma Sola Presbyterian Church, (941) 792-3141 6510 3rd Ave. West, Bradenton FL 34209

SOLD

I am a Louet distributor. I purchased this wheel for myself, but never used it beyond setting it up to make sure everything was working when received. More photos of the wheel are HERE. I am offering the wheel FOR SALE on my Etsy site HERE.

Louet produced a limited supply of these wheels to commemorate their 40th anniversary. These wheels are the same design as the original wheel from 1974. Here is the original description for the wheel when it was first released:

For people who like to spin outside (on holidays, with friends or just out there) Louët has developed a spinning wheel that can easily be carried around. The small size (30x40x17 cm) and hat box design makes it very portable. This wheel has one ratio, that is 1:3.6 just like the original wheel. It is a right foot, single treadle wheel with Scotch tension flyer. It has a delta orifice, but the yarn paces through a hole in the flyer so very bulky yarns are not able to be spun on this wheel. The wheel comes with three bobbins and a built-in lazy kate.

Each of these limited edition wheels is signed by Jan Louet and numbered. Only 125 were produced for the 40th anniversary edition.

Entered the Florida State Fair for the first time. The blue knit shawl won first place for hand spun yarn, the pastel plaid with fringe won second place and a skein of natural 2 ply won an honorable mention. Pleased with the outcome.

I am introducing NORO 100% wool pencil roving for sale on my Etsy site. (Go directly by clicking on the button to the right with the Rainbow Roll.)

These three shawls were made from yarn spun from NORO pencil roving.

The knitted shawl in the photo in Navy, Sky Blue & Purple was knit from 2 ply worsted weight yarn (color-way 1009).

The Orange, Yellow & Purple continuous strand woven shawl created on a 7′ tri-loom with crocheted edge was woven from colorway 1022.

The pale naturals plaid (Brown, Moss & Naturals) continuous strand woven fringed shawl was created on a 7′ tri-loom was created from worsted weight 2 ply yarn (color-way 1016).

Festival is coming February 2nd & 3rd (Friday & Saturday) 2018

I’ll be leading 2 workshops:           REGISTER HERE

10 AM – 12 PM “Wheel Selection, Mechanics, Repair” ($50) Friday OR Saturday
How to identify a good 2nd hand/vintage/antique wheel (and what to avoid), basic wheel mechanics, difference between direct drive, double drive or Irish tension, and demonstrations as to how to make minor repairs, e.g. replace leather bearings, shim the uprights, and how to make extra bobbins from hardware store washers and copper tubing as featured in Spin-Off Magazine.

Learn to Use a Lucet (2:15 PM – 3:00 PM) ($25) Friday OR Saturday
Learn to use this ancient Viking cording tool to make strong and very sturdy cords that you can use in so many ways. Use them to make drawstrings, lacings, buttons and embellishments for your knit and crochet projects. Also make jewelry, designer shoelaces, home improvement hacks and more with these strong cords. The cost of your own lucet is included in the workshop fee. Class is limited to 10.

Registration for the Lucet class isn’t up on the website yet, but I will be leading the class.

Plus, I will be bringing as many wheels from my unique collection as I can fit in the 4-runner.

Lots of food, fun and demonstrations.

This past weekend I rescued a CPW, Canadian Production Wheel, which showed up on local Craig’s List and which has a distinctive cast iron treadle with cut-outs:  EL. St. Frs.  While there had been much speculation in spinning wheel circles some time ago when the treadle first appeared on a wheel, but no one had been able to ID the wheel.  Sadly, that wheel was missing flyer and bobbin.  My find is intact with the exception of the footman.  While I’ve been in the process of cleaning and feeding the wheel, others have been researching.  We think we’ve found the builder.  24 year old Elie Laporte in the 1871 Census of St-François-du-Lac, Yamaska, Quebec was reported to be a “manufacturier de rouets”.  He reappears in the 1881 Census as “menuisier” (carpenter) and again in the 1891 Census as “fabricant de rouets”.  It all fits.  EL St. Frs

Obviously, by identifying the builder and discovering the span he was working and building wheels we can approximate the date of the wheel.  Elie Laporte was born 27 Nov 1845 and died 2 Aug 1919.  He had married first at age 17 and he and his wife had three daughters.  His wife died after only five years of marriage, leaving him a widower with three young daughters.  He remarried a year later and is listed in the 1871 Census with his second wife, the three young girls, his mother and mother-in-law and his sister all living in the same household.  Since he is already identified as a builder of spinning wheels at that time, it can be assumed that this wheel was built before the turn of the century and somewhere within the range of 1863 (the year of his first marriage) and 1901 (when he is listed in the census as a border which suggests he’d given up his home and shop).  He had relocated to St Bonaventure d’Upton by the time of his death in 1919 at the age of 64.

While it would be wonderful to have been able to narrow the build date even more, I’m thrilled to have identified the builder and to have restored the wheel to it’s purposes, that of being a production spinning wheel.

The cover title, “Hot Wheels”, Spin-Off Spring 2015, refers to a round-up of One-Of-A-Kind Spinning Wheels. I wrote the article and several wheels from my “collection” were featured. The article has been well received and has garnered a request for more. The next round-up will be for “personalized” spinning wheels.

I’m looking for photos of wheels that started their lives as one of many  but have been decorated to express the personality of the owner/spinner.  (Not custom or one-of-a-kind wheels.)

Guidelines for taking photos for Spin-Off HERE.

If you have a wheel you would like to have featured, add a comment and I’ll email a visual release to you for signature and directions as to how to get photo to me.

Had the most amazing Birthday.  I spent much of the day with Kathleen Keenan, Certified Saori Instructor @ her Sarasota studio for a private lesson.  She is a generous instructor, coach, and cheer leader.

Very pleased with the outcome … a sampler of playing with color & texture and somehow it all works. Plan to turn it into a mobius scarf.