I have made reference to our new spinning wheel in a couple of my previous posts. It is a Pipy Spinning Wheel and was made in New Zealand. It was made sometime between 1962 and 1982. It is a lovely little thing. Quite small and with a few gentle nudges of the treadle it whirls around in a smooth and hypnotic way. Can we spin anything though? Hmm.
We mentioned that we were interested in learning to spin after we went to a Spinners and Weavers exhibition two years back. So my mother-in-law gave us her old spinning wheel and some fleece. We were very excited. Unfortunately, a part was broken and although the resident handyman tried to repair it, you would kind of need a professional wood turner kind of person to make this small wooden part properly. It is a moving part and so does need to work well. As we didn't know anyone with those skills, it sat in the corner gathering dust. Then about a year later, at my tapestry Christmas party in December 2011, as we were saying our goodbyes, I happened to mention something casually about spinning (and our desire to have a go) and lo and behold, my friend had just received her fourth spinning wheel. Her husband was making noises about numbers of wheels in the house...so...she was...very keen to find a home for her 'overflow' spinning wheel. She just about insisted I should have it. She insisted so much, I think I got it for an absurdly ridiculous low price. A few days later, we went around to her house, gave her some loose coins, a few bits of lint and fluff from the bottom of my handbag and then we had a beautifully constructed, tiny bit of women's fibre history and ancient craftmanship sitting in our lounge room.
Taken from this website..Pipy products were coded, in hand writing under the table or treadle - M.A. (+ some numbers) is the Pipy saxony, M.B. the Wendy, M.C. the Poly, and M.D. the Sprite (picture at right) rather like a metal-wheeled Poly, of which only a few were made. A few early Polys have a metal wheel also, but can be identified by the code. Website: An Identification of New Zealand Spinning Wheels and their Makers.
So based on the photo we have a Pipy Saxony.
Pipy was one of several types of wheel made in Auckland by Philip Poore (Pipy Craft Ltd) from 1962. This is an early Pipy; later he made the legs a little more sturdy. It was designed for double drive but can be adapted for brake tension or even bobbin lead.
The bobbins have a metal shaft, and the spindle runs in metal bearings. A hook flips over to secure the orifice. A cord is used instead of the usual rigid footman. "Queen Victoria had a spinning wheel with a cord footman" says Mr Poore, "which is all that is needed for a downward foot movement and is very light."
More on Pipy wheels
Well.....can we spin? It goes like this. The wheel came home with us after a demo at my friend's house. Then we had a few goes in our lounge room and could make no sense of it. My husband was all for taking the machine apart because clearly it wasn't working properly. I encouraged him to think maybe it had something to do with our technique and skill level rather than the mechanics of the wheel. As proof, I suggested we just go ahead and wind on a bobbin of wool. So we took a ball of knitting wool and managed to 'spin' or wind it onto a bobbin. In the top photo of this post you can see a bobbin with some blue commercially spun wool on it. So - yes - the machine works. Must be us. We spent a couple of days over the Christmas holidays spinning fleece onto the bobbin. It was fun but really pretty hopeless and completely unusable. It was reasonably even but so thick it was like rope. We knew it wasn't meant to be like this but it was still a great lot of fun to get some fleece out of a bag and through our hands and onto a bobbin. Clearly though we needed help and practice.
My friend had said that we could come back in January and have a proper lesson with one of her friends. So, Tess and I spent a really lovely morning with Ester and Alexis teaching us how to spin. For a few beautiful and magical fleeting moments I could feel, really feel how to spin. But like all new skills, a few moments later I lost the art of getting both hands and foot completely in sync and we were back to overspinning the fleece. This below is the product of a morning's proper tuition. It isn't even - so maybe it looks like a step backwards but I don't see it like that. Some of the spinning is producing a thinner result, more like something vaguely like a yarn instead of a rope. So - that's progress. I'm not 100% sure where spinning fits into the crafting world of two suburban home bodies (Melissa and Tess). I know we have loads of encouragement and support from Alexis so it's really up to us whether we want to take this skill forwards and give it a go. I am tempted.
Here you will see a relative of my spinning wheel (scroll down to bottom of post). I used to read Poppalina all the time. I think she's gone silent now. I loved her blog...she even had ducks ...and she's a much better spinner..
This story is about restoring a Pipy Spinning Wheel - but not a Saxony - a Wendy instead.