View the highlights & photographs from our January 2010 issue.

Issue #67 - January 2010

As we begin our seventeenth year, we reprise some of the topics that we studied earlier. On the subject of moving-spindle wheels, we look at the rarest type, those with spindle heads that travel on "ways." We begin a series of articles about the ever-popular Canadian Production Wheels. We have an Inquiry about unusual ball winders, an exhibit review, and a clarification of the function of a tool that we discussed a while back.

Moving Spindles—on Ways by Ron Walter

In his extensive collection of textile tools, Ron Walter has several examples of moving-spindle spinning wheels. In this issue he discusses the very rarest of these, the wheels on which the spindle-head assembly travels along "ways," or metal rods. He compares his own wheel to some early patents and to a few other known examples.

Wheel with spindle on ways in Walter Collection

Green patent wheel in Pennington Collection

Wheel with spindle on ways in Falls Mills Collection

Exhibit Review by Grace Hatton

Grace Hatton reviews the exhibit at the National Museum of the American Coverlet in Bedford, PA. It features coverlets and textile tools from the collection of Kitty Bell and Ron Walter.

Spinning wheel attributed to S. Henry

Reel marked I. K. In front of coverlet by Leonard Metz dated 1832

What Is a Canadian Production Wheel? by Jill Cooper

Over the years we have discussed a type of wheel that we labeled either Quebec wheels or tilt-tension wheels. An on-line group of spinners collect, research, and restore these wheels, which they call Canadian Production Wheels [CPW]. In the first of a new series, Jill Cooper summarizes what the group considers the basic characteristics of CPWs. In future articles she will discuss what they have learned about some of the well-known wheel makers from Quebec.

Advertisement ca. 1924

Canadian Production Wheel [CPW]

A Clarification by Norman Kennedy

Identifying textile tools can sometimes be tricky. Norman Kennedy, the Scottish spinner, weaver, and folk singer, explains why he thinks one type of tool was misnamed and its function misunderstood.

Transylvanian quill winder

Inquiry: Norwegian Ball Winders by Kim Caulfield

On a visit to Vesterheim, the Norwegian/American Museum in Decorah, IA, Kim Caulfield discovered some strange objects that appear to be ball winders. She has never seen anything like them. She describes them and wonders if anyone else has come across this type of ball winder before.

Ball winder

Ball winder

Ball winder