Sunday, July 15, 2012

flax on the CPW

In reply to a question from a member of the CPW group on Ravelry, I decided to make a video:

I'm spinning flax strick from my sitting distaff - to linen on the Canadian Production Wheel. (the distaff is rigged up to keep the swivel post stationary)

My husband shot the video, and when I looked at it, the line seems to be invisible, so I added a close up shot of the draft at the end...using the tripod. It was difficult to get a good "over my shoulder" shot.

The question was "Anyone here have experience successfully spinning flax on their CPW?"

and...so now my question is: "How often were CPW's actually used for spinning flax?"

I imagine they were mostly used for spinning wool...but apparently...some of them have a hole on the table for a distaff..and a distaff certainly could have held wool, but maybe some flax from time to time.

6 comments:

Janice in GA said...

From the way the crank on the wheel is turning, it looks like the wheel is turning CCW. Is that really happening, or is it just an artifact of the video?

Also, what a beautiful wheel! :)

cyndy said...

Hi Janice,

Yes..the wheels is turning CCW...I spin linen singles with an "S" twist.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

I like to see you in action. You must have the patience of a saint is all I can say. :) Keep cool.

elizabeth said...

I can't believe how thin you're spinning! Granted, you're spinning strick, but it's still impressive! I was cleaning out my attic last weekend and couldn't bear to throw away my homemade distaff. One of these days I'll spin flax again!

cindy said...

Beautiful wheel.Tell me more about the distaff. it looks like it is free standing.

Mary Rayme said...

It is almost magical to me, how it all works. Very cool video, cousin. :-)

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