Twist and Vibrations: Mittens, a wheel, and moths

Here are the fingerless mittens from my spinning practices on the great wheel. I am very happy with them. Just love the way the color came out, and they have that wonderful woolen feel. Inspiration to continue my practices.

The yarn finally gets a relaxing bath. It didn't need it to settle the twist, just to get them clean.

After drying on the top of the wood stove overnight:

So happy about these.

If my big wheel had not had so many issues with wobbliness, which often resulted in it throwing it's drive band, what happened last week might not have happened. But alas, it did happen, almost accidently. I got a new wheel! Well, new as in new-to-me, but in fact it's over 200 years old, having been built sometime before 1804--the year it's builder died. Yes, I know the name of the builder of my new wheel: Zadock Wright, and I know this because his initials 'ZW' are etched into the base of the wheel.

Through the Ravelry group, "Spindle Wheels", I found out the initials are his and was a Shaker from the Canterbury Village, just a little south of here. But that's not all . . .

I did a little research of my own and discovered that he also spent time at the Enfield Shaker Village. Enfield is where I grew up.

One person who played an important role in the early development of the New Hampshire Shakers was Zadock Wright. It is unclear where he may have originated, but in the 1760s he became an early settler of Hartland, Vt., located on the Connecticut River about nine miles north of Windsor. (Manchester Union Leader)

. . .

In 1790 Wright was listed in the census as the “head of household” of a group of 31 men, women, and children living together in Enfield. This was the beginning of the new Shaker community. Wright later moved to the Shaker village at Canterbury. (Manchester Union Leader)

And that's not all! From a history of Enfield, NH:

We have the fact from a record made at the time, that on the 6th of September, 1782, these two men [Cooley and Chuancy] came to Joseph Flint's Canaan, South road, and there preached; but gaining no adherents in that town, they went into the adjoining one, Enfield, and there succeeded in making converts of some of the staid and respectable farmers and mechanics and their families--among whom were James Jewett, Ezekiel Stevens, Asa Pattee, Benjamin Merrill and Zadock Wright, living on Jones hill, and the hill afterwards called after them, Shaker Hill, on the northerly side of Mascoma lake. They remained on these hills, gaining some new believers, about ten years, till about 1792, when, effecting an exchange of land, they removed to the more fertile spot they have ever since occupied, with large additions on the southerly side of the same lake. (nh.searchroots.com)

I grew up on Jones Hill! I can't believe the history behind this wheel comes so close to home; I love it! The 'more fertile spot' which became the Enfield Shaker's Village was known as Chosen Vale and it is now a museum. I've visited it a number of times since moving back to NH. In fact, some years back, one of the docents of the museum took me up to the attic of the great stone dwelling where there were dozens of wheels.

This wheel does not throw it's drive band, thankfully. I don't think the spindle it came with is original and it was causing problems with take up so I swapped in the spindle from my old wheel and it works beautifully.

The man I bought this from lives down the road from me and he spent time cleaning it all up.

A moth problem. Not the first time, won't be the last time. Comes with the territory. When I went upstairs to get the sweater I knit two years ago to keep me warm during our cold spell a few weeks ago, I discovered a hole. Ugh.

Here's the hole after I'd outlined in white yarn where to make the patch.

I used a long length of yarn (I still had some left over from the original knitting) and wove it across the area with a large eye needle, up on one side, down on the other leaving a good length of yarn going across so that I could pick up stitches. . .