"I must have been about 8 or 9. I was at school. Back then in the twenties skirts were getting shorter and I wanted really long stockings. The ones my mother made only went over the knees. They were knitted from handspun wool. She said if I wanted them longer I'd just have to spin my own wool and knit them myself. She let me use one of her spinning wheels. I finished the stockings but they almost stood up all by themselves. I'd spun the wool much too thickly.
"I started again in the early eighties. It was becoming a bit of a fashion in Sydney. But that wasn't why I took it up. I was starting to get a bit of arthritis and keeping my hands and feet moving helped a lot to keep the joints supple."
Here's a pic of Mum's first spinning wheel which was hand made by Albert Gerber in Berne, Switzerland. It still works. (Albert Gerber made his last spinning wheel in 2005.)
No comments:
Post a Comment