People who don't understand #spinning yarn by hand, aka #handspinning, think a spinning wheel works if the drive wheel turns. And that wheels are easy to build. I mean, how hard could it be? They're totally for women, so they're obviously not really technology.
These thoughts brought to you by yet another morning waking up to an email asking if someone should spend $300 on a non-working "antique" that someone says "works great," because new wheels people recommend start in the $500-600 range.
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Functioning new wheels cost that because that's what it costs to build them reliably and bring them to market.
Could you build your own? people also ask often. Maybe. But you need to already have all the tools and already know how spinning wheels actually work.
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Could you build your own? people also ask often. Maybe. But you need to already have all the tools and already know how spinning wheels actually work.
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If you want to start spinning on the cheap, either:
- learn to use spindles
- make friends with people who already spin, who typically will throw equipment and fiber and lessons at you whether you want them or not
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- learn to use spindles
- make friends with people who already spin, who typically will throw equipment and fiber and lessons at you whether you want them or not
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Lots of people think spindles are less productive and less useful than wheels. That's not true. Spindles have been in use for tens of thousands of years; flyer-and-bobbin wheels for a few hundred.
Most of that time, the textile mill has done the major production of yarn; the same isn't true for the spindle, which has been used since before ancient history, and has produced most of humanity's yarn.
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All the wheel does is shorten the learning curve, which has some interesting implications for mercantilist and capitalist applications, but that's probably another thread. If anyone's interested.
