Locally Created Red Oak Spinning Wheel

A couple of weeks ago we saw a very intriguing ad on Facebook Marketplace. Steve is always scanning the ads for anything of interest and he came across this handmade spinning wheel for sale.

An elderly gentleman who just lives 25 miles away in Menominee, Michigan was selling a spinning wheel that he made out of beautiful Red Oak hardwood. We decided to answer the ad and go check it out. I really didn't need another spinning wheel, but I thought this one might be nice to take along camping instead of my good one that I would prefer to keep at home. 

For a while now, I wanted a wheel with larger bobbins that I could do bulkier yarns with. Usually I only spin fine thin sock knitting yarns. But I have quite a large amount of wool roving in storage that I have wanted to spin up into thicker yarns. I would like to knit some thick hats, and having larger bobbins and a wider flyer to accommodate them would let me do it.

The wheel in the photos on the Marketplace ad appeared to be what I was looking for...

We made arrangements to meet at the woodworker's home in his little studio. It was a delightful afternoon meeting Bob, who was more than happy to demonstrate all of the creative parts of his handmade spinning wheel. He showed us all around his woodworking studio, demonstrating the other items he makes as well.

The wheel is rather primitive in nature and put together from all of the experience and talent that a wonderful old woodworker could come up with. He was rather inventive on some of the features and was so proud to show us how he put it all together.

He enjoys making the woodworking parts, and shows us how he also manufactured the metal parts. He made the orifice and the flyer to spin as evenly as he could, and added ball bearings on the main wheel. He made the pittman arm of metal instead of wood to make it last longer. 

He told us how the beautiful red oak lumber that he uses came from a tree that was cut down on his son's property. It turns out his son's property is in Peshtigo, which is a mere 10 miles from our own home!!  Can you imagine how thrilling it is to have a locally grown tree made into a wheel and about 10 miles away from where it grew????

What was extremely interesting is that this huge marvelous red oak tree that came down is that it tells a historic tale. It had telltale markings counting back at a certain number of rings where it had survived The Peshtigo Fire that happened 150 years ago. If you don't know about the horrific Peshtigo Fire, it was more dangerous and killed more people and was the same night as the ill-fated Great Chicago Fire in 1871.   

The Peshtigo fire was a large forest fire on October 8, 1871, in northeastern Wisconsin, United States, including much of the southern half of the Door Peninsula and adjacent parts of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The largest community in the affected area was Peshtigo, Wisconsin which had a population of approximately 1,700 residents. The fire burned about 1.2 million acres and is the deadliest wildfire in recorded history,^[1] with the number of deaths estimated between 1,500^[1] and 2,500.^[2] Although the exact number of deaths is debated, mass graves, both those already exhumed and those still being discovered, in Peshtigo and the surrounding areas show that the death toll of the blaze was most likely greater than the 1889 Johnstown flood^[3] death toll of 2,200 people or more.^[4]

Occurring on the same day as the more famous Great Chicago Fire, the Peshtigo fire has been largely forgotten, even though it killed far more people. In total, the Great Chicago Fire took one-fifth as many lives as the Peshtigo Fire.^[5][6] "Everybody's heard about the Chicago fire, and that got all the publicity at the time," said a volunteer at the Peshtigo Fire Museum, named Ruth Wiltzius, whose great-grandfather perished while trying to escape. "Peshtigo was a backwards lumber town then—who had ever heard of it? Chicago was the big city. Which one was going to get more attention?"^[3]

Nonetheless, several cities in Michigan, including Holland and Manistee (across Lake Michigan from Peshtigo) and Port Huron (at the southern end of Lake Huron), also had major fires on the same day. These fires, along with many other fires of the nineteenth century had the same basic causes: small fires coupled with unusually dry weather. ^[7]

More info on link:

Peshtigo Fire on Wikipedia

 

So this huge stately red oak tree that survived the Peshtigo Fire had now died and finally come down. It was split up by a portable sawmill and cut into planks. Bob has these beautiful planks and pieces of red oak wood that has been dried and cured. He is now using it to build various wooden spinning wheels, starting with one first for his wife and then one for his daughter. The third one he had made for his granddaughter, who apparently didn't want it, so he decided to sell it on marketplace. He also makes drop spindles, flyer spinners, kick wheel spinners, ball winders, and spindle type wheels.  He even makes these little primitive orifice hooks that can hang from an eyelet on the spinning wheel. 

Of course, I bought the wheel and took it home with me.  It's a much more rugged wheel in terms of spinning, and not as balanced and refined as my Wee Peggy from New Zealand.  But it does the job and spins the thicker bulkier yarns that I was wanting to create. 

He also makes lazy kates with a tensioning device to prevent the bobbins from over spinning as you ply off multiple strands to create finished yarns. I went back a week later and bought a lazy kate along with three more additional bobbins.  The thin tensioned string on a spring runs around the bottom grooves of the bobbins to prevent them from over-twirling when I pull off the yarns to ply them together.

When we went back to purchase the lazy kate, I asked Bob if he would please sign the bottom of my wheel for provenance, as well as the bottom of my Lazy Kate. I think I will print out a copy of this blog and keep it preserved with the wheel for anybody in the future when I am long gone.

   

He used to do craft shows, before Covid put a squash on that. He makes the most beautiful brooms! He makes full size brooms and also the smaller whisk brooms. He very generously gave me this one after I purchased the spinning wheel.

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Now that the wheel is home, it sits in my She Shed when it's not in the motorhome on a camping weekend. I was going to leave it in the motorhome, but it's nice to grab and pull over to my chair on occasion when we are watching a movie or just looking out at the deer in the backyard. 

Here is the yarn that I first started spinning on the wheel. It was a beautiful rich brown but I didn't have enough of this particular brown wool to really create a complete hat.  It was kind of a "sample" to get used to the wheel.  Spinning thick is hard to do after spending so many years spinning thin! 

I pulled out some beautiful silvery gray wool and I then spun up enough to ply against the brown.  This is how the Lazy Kate works: I set the bobbins of single ply spun yarn onto each of the little metal spindles.  Then I gently pull the yarns off those bobbins and spin them in a reverse direction on the wheel to ply into the thick bulky yarn. 

With two full bobbins,

 I could now knit up a hat.

While we were traveling last week I brought the yarn along with me and started to knit up a thick hefty winter hat.  I usually never knit this thick, so I took a guess as to needle size, gauge and number of stitches around the head to start with. 

As the hat grew and grew, I realized it was going to be much heavier and larger than I originally intended.  OH MY! 

It actually turned out to be a very large man's hat. I guess I'm just not accustomed to knitting with such thick yarn. Next time I will have to do less stitches around to begin with and then the hat will be a little smaller size.  I didn't have the heart to tear it apart and start over. 

I enjoy knitting hats as we travel or if it's during a time when I need to wait, like doctor appointments. I enjoy knitting while we are traveling in the car because it's a small portable way to create something and keep my fingers busy.  Usually I just use scrap yarns and leftovers or combine thinner yarns to make thicker hats.   (the new extra large one is on the far left)

I should get a bunch of these listed in my Etsy store this week. It's gotten cold and windy and blustery and snow around areas of Wisconsin. Perfect time to get a winter hat! 

https://kareninthewoods.etsy.com/

Now I pulled out some rich caramel colored wool and llama blend for the next batch of yarn.  I think I will ply with a strand of creamy white wool for a hat.  This time I will start out a bit smaller? 

I spoke of watching deer up higher in this post.  Yesterday, as I was sitting in the She Shed, I saw two young deer wander into our yard in the middle of the day!   

 

They snuffled around underneath the bird feeders a bit, and then I went out and clapped at them and shouted to scare them off. They should not be so brave in the middle of the day, hunting season is coming! They need to learn to fear humans, not get so complacent around the houses here in town. 

The sun is shining today, but it's bitterly cold and windy. I am going to stay in and work some more on my quilting, and maybe do a little bit of spinning on the new Peshtigo Red Oak Spinning Wheel.