One of the largest items in our museum collection is a spinning wheel from the estate of Charles Holmes loaned to the Historical Society by Oren and Pam Robinson. The spinning wheel was invented around 1400 and was used to spin wool into yarn for knitting. Spinning wheels come in many different sizes and with some different uses. Ours is a large one known as a “Walking” or “Great” wool wheel.
A typical walking wheel is about five feet tall. The large wheel turns a much smaller spindle. The spindle goes around multiple times with each turn of the wheel. The yarn is spun at an angle of the spindle tip and is then stored on the spindle. Unfortunately, our wheel lacks its spindle but still is a good example of this type.
To spin on the walking wheel, the spinner would hold fiber in her left hand and then slowly begin to turn the wheel with her right hand. As the wheel turned, the spinner would walk backwards and draw the fiber away from the spindle at an angle. Slowly, the spindle would fill with yarn. A good day’s work for an active spinner would create about 6 skeins of yarn. It has been estimated that while creating these skeins, the spinner would walk the equivalent of 20 miles back and forth. Hence, the name, “Walking Wheel”.
An interesting footnote is the origin of the word, spinster. In the dictionary, the first meaning is a woman who spins and the second is an unmarried woman. The reason for the second definition is that in colonial times, the work of spinning wool into yarn was most often done by an unmarried woman over the normal age for marriage with few financial resources. These women would earn their keep with their spinning. Today, both the wheel and the term “spinster” have been pretty much relegated to the past. I want to thank Cathy Phinney for her knowledge and research.
By Connie Eshbach