Obadiah Tharp Great Wheel

Obadiah Tharp Great Wheel, a set on Flickr.

I thought that I should share these scans in a more searchable form for the general public (AKA those not on Ravelry). This is a sales brochure that came with my copy of Legacy of the Great Wheel by Katy Turner. These wheels were produced by her and her partner after she realized that her antique great wheel was not up to the task anymore, as she was spinning at a production level. I love the look of these wheels, and they seem to be engineered beautifully with the committed spinner in mind. Someone just contacted me on Ravelry because she has a Tharp wheel (jealous!), and I realized that I should make these scans easier to find for the casual searcher who picked up one from a yard sale or what have you. I bet a few of these have made it into antique stores even though they are vintage, not antique, wheels. I already have two great wheels and a Minor's head, but I would snap one of these up in an instant. I try to keep an eye out for them, and I wouldn't be surprised if I did find one, since they were made and sold in my region.

I'm in the middle of planning my move to Eugene in September, but, once I'm settled, I'm hoping to teach a great wheel workshop. I'm still waiting on a new spindle for one of them (along with two unrelated flyers - so three wheels are down right now) from the talented hands of Ron Antoine, so that would be the only hold up. If you're interested in a great wheel workshop or a private lesson, please contact me. There's a romance in these wheels that treadle wheels cannot even approach, as much as I adore them. The great wheel is pure magic, a joyous dance of spinner, wheel, and wool. My first moments of confident spinning on my first great wheel made me feel like a graceful maiden in a beautiful courtship dance. Waltzing Mathilde indeed!

An Evening's Work

These are all from the same fleece - a white Romney ewe from Oregon. I dyed the locks, and I prepared the white wool by drumcarding the clean locks and then pulling roving off the carder using a diz.

Good friends

Rambouillet x Cheviot fleece

I have this Beastie soaking in a tub overnight. I love a lofty, springy fleece, and this one is just perfect.  It is astonishingly clean and sound, with plump, well-defined locks, and I remember it being surprisingly inexpensive. The ewe's name is Robin.  Trouble is, I've lost the farmer's name and now I'll never be able to get any more!

EDIT: I found the receipt!!!  The farm is Two Roans Ranch in Maupin, and it looks like this is a standard cross for them, so there should be more fleeces.  I finished washing and drying a pound or so of this fleece.  With how lofty the wool is, a pound looks like two or three pounds of any other wool.  I carded a batt, and I am itching to spin it. but I want to finish a big orange sparkly bunny batt that I'm in the middle of spinning before I start on something new, mostly because all of the CPWs are taken up with that or other projects (one is full of cormo, and the other is halfway full of merino in blues from Big Alice) and I seem to be inconsolable without a CPW to spin this beauty.  I think that it will be the Best Sock Yarn Ever since Manx Loaghtan semi-woolen 3-ply.  (No, seriously, try that.  It's yummy.  Durable, squishy, hard to felt, hugs your feet, etc.  LOVE.  If you like it, your next step is Ryeland.  Whoooo-eee!)  So, if this wool sounds amazing to you, email Two Roans Ranch.  I will try to get some batts and maybe finished yarn in the shop in the next week.

The Little Cat in the Land of CPWs

My little German wedding wheel came home after a year of waiting! Ron Antoine had to do some serious work on her. He remade her tension screw, fixed a nasty break in the table from the warped tension screw, fixed a broken leg (a larger job than it seems), made new flyer arms, and turned 7 wooden bells to replace the missing ones. She's perfect now, and the sound of the captive rings on her mini spokes reminds me of a cat purring, so I've named her the Little Cat, or the Silken Tiger, but mostly Little Cat. She's so wee that my whole foot doesn't fit on the treadle, so I just treadle with my toes.

A Century of Sickness (or so it feels)

Hello.

Yes, hello.  I've been sick for a very long time.  My suffering was not life-threatening, but it was constant and it took all of my energy.  I'd rather not get into details, but I've recently found treatment that has helped, and, for the first time in a very long time, I feel like I can live again.  It's... amazing.

While I was at my worst, which was all winter up until late June, I laid around in bed and withdrew from the world.  I missed emails and phone calls, and I know that many good things passed me by.  I managed to build up a good stack of regrets, and I bet there are more regrets that I don't even know about.  (I missed Black Sheep and the Hood River workshop!)  If you were trying to contact me during that time, please try again, now that I'm back in the world of the living.

Now life is beginning to roll along, and me with it, and big changes are happening.  In late September, I will be moving to Eugene to pursue a degree at University of Oregon in Folklore and Fiber Arts.  (What??!)  I'm leaving my job of five years, as well as the home I've shared for 3 1/2 years.  I am justly terrified and exhilarated.  I'm hoping to make some pin money from Etsy and craft fairs so that I can keep feeding my animal friends.  I don't know what will happen with the rabbits; for now, my ex will be taking care of them, as the likelihood of finding digs that allow farm animals is pretty low given my income level.  I've been spinning, but not really teaching, which makes me a little bit sad.  I'm also currently at PSU doing immersion Spanish courses and working full time, which, predictably, culminated in me getting a terrible cold for the last 4 days and missing 3 days of class and work.

In BIG fiber news, I finally got a great drum carder for commercial batt production.  It's a gently-used Fancy Kitty Big Tom, and I love it.  I made myself some batts and have spun most of them on the Ouellet, and they're delicious.  The fine carding cloth does a great job blending.  I'm not generally a fan of batts that aren't all that blended, and I'm finding it easy to control how well this carder blends because it has a separate control for the licker-in and the swift, so I can change the ratio for different effects and different types of fiber.  For example, if I have lamb locks with super cute little ringlets on the tips, as longwool lambs do, and I want to preserve the curls in the finished batt, I can slow down the swift and let it take them up without stretching them out too much.  I put two batts in the Etsy shop tonight; it was hard to list them instead of keeping them for myself!

Suri Alpaca, BFL, Silk, Firestar

Angora Rabbit (Bienvenu), Shetland, Silk, Firestar

I also started making darned purty stitch markers.  If you like knowing where you are in your lace knitting and not crying into your cobweb shawl as you frog it and curse the day that you learned to knit, you should check them out.