OK, our road trip was just a couple of miles, but tonight we went to see a spinning wheel. Its owner had it custom made in Brownsville, OR, in 1976 by Ben Fisher, a Mennonite man in his 80s. It's a copy of a wheel brought from Denmark to Ohio in 1854. This wheel has resided in her home in the Mojave Desert for the last 30 years. The wheel is a double-drive although it's not exactly set up that way in the photos that the owner provided for us before we came for a visit. You can see the two sizes of the bobbin whorls in the close-up of the Kate.
The workmanship is an interesting blend: The spindle-turned pieces are very finely done, while the bobbins are more rustic, for example. Also, some of the pieces are nicely fastened together with wooden pegs (I especially like the little skewer-like pieces that hold the wheel in place and fasten the bobbins to the lazy kate), while small yet utilitarian nuts and bolts hold pieces in place elsewhere.
Quite the contrast to the Ashford Joy wheels that typically come to our gatherings!
