Generous gift from serendipitous stranger

[triskellian]

One of the more minor of the plots and schemes I was talking about the other day has come off already :-)

Comments

[lathany]

It looks very fairy tale-ish. Can you prick your finger on one or was that just story-dressing?

[sushidog]

I saw a discussion about this somewhere recently, and I can't remember where. The consensus seemed to be that spinning wheels don't actually have sharp bits on which you could injure yourself, unless they're broken, and that the most likely origin for the story was either that she got a splinter (which is a bit prosaic), or that she was actually using a drop-spindle, althouigh even those tend not to be particularly sharp or pointy.
(Disclaimer; this is just my memory of what other people said; I have no knowledge of spinning devices at all!)

[triskellian]

Nope, no sharp edges at all. From the reading I've been doing, I've learnt that the bit she probably pricked her finger on was the distaff, not the spindle, but my wheel doesn't have a distaff (it's used for spinning other kinds of fibre, I think). Not that I have any idea what one is, only that sometimes they have sharp pointy bits ;-)

[bateleur]

That doesn't sound right to me.

I prefer this explanation of sharp spindles:

"While we're on the topic of automatic take-up: Sleeping Beauty did not have a modern spinning wheel -- there's nothing on it to prick your finger. She had the pre-flyer wheel, usually called a Great Wheel, with a spindle being driven by the wheel. The spindle can be quite sharp at the end and is ultimately prickable. My great wheel's spindle is protected with a cork when not in use."

[dr_bob]

Drop spinning? You should have spoken to us re-enacty types (specifically cuthbertcross) on how to do that!! 'Though from the sounds of things you've picked it up pretty well with just the intarweb to help.

If you want a really time-consuming way to process home-spun wool, you should take up naalbinding!!

[triskellian]

you should take up naalbinding
Thanks, but no thanks ;-) Since I've no need to follow any rules other than the rules of what I like, I'll stick to knitting please. Naalbinding sounds slooooow.

[bopeepsheep]

It looks fab! Did it need much cleaning? I was trying not to look too closely into the box in case of sp*ders... :)

[triskellian]

It's lovely, isn't it? It was dusty, but fifteen minutes with a jay cloth and some kitchen spray was all it needed really.

There were spiders in the box , but I squished the big live one with my boot, covered the big dead one with something and pretended it didn't exist, and the others were small enough that I could overcome my revulsion with spinning!squee :-)

[secondhand_rick]

Not sure I understand it... where does the flux capacitor go?

[anonymous]

Enjoy