October 21, 2008

Rhinebeck: the wheels

One of the (many!) treats of the festival was oggling and treadling gorgeous spinning wheels.  I saw an antique Canadian, several nice vintage wheels, and all the new exciting wheels. 

I loved meeting Gilbert Gonsalves of the Robin Wheel line.

rhinebeck! 009
His wheels are, as you can see, STUNNING and I love that you can see a hint of his past life as a boat builder in how the wheels are styled.  I tried out one of the Robin wheels and the action was so incredibly smooth.  Dreamily smooth. Heavenly smooth!  Gilbert has a waiting list, but I think that if you were in the market for a double-treadle wheel with super easy action I think it'd be well worth the wait. And you know what else? He might be one of the nicest people I met at the festival, and that's saying a lot. There were a heck of a lot of nice people there.

I also sat down at the relatively famous Golding triple flyer wheel.

Goldin spinning wheel
Not only is it all fancified, it also FLIES! What speed, what fun.

But you all know that my first love is old wheels, and the highlight of the wheel-a-thon for me was meeting David of The Merlin Tree who makes the famous Hitchhiker spinning wheel but also restores old wheels. After a great conversation I've decided to send him my mother's wheel for a full restoration. I couldn't be more excited! It's time for the beautiful old wheel to come back to working life.  The process can take quite a while, but David told me that I'll have it within a year. Talk about worth the wait!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow! Looks awesome!! You didn't come home with another wheel?
Five fleeces though! Amazing! So what combs did you end up with?
Did you take classes too?
Keep the pictures coming, would love to see the fleeces. :)

Shana said...

Those wheels were like butter. I wish I had tons of money and time to spin every day. And Gilbert was SO nice. I want to join the waiting list. But the sunburst one or one with that amazing burl-like wood? They're all so gorgeous!!!!!

cheryl said...

great photos! It was fun to meet you at Rhinebeck...