Swift

When Clare’s friend Bobbie had to sell her mom’s house recently, there were quite a few pieces of old furniture and “woodworking,” and this “swift” or “yarn winder” was among the pieces. An item for sale on eBay looks just like this and is titled: “Rare 1700–1800s Antique Colonial Clock Reel Yarn Winder Spinning Wheel Spinner.” I did take a couple of frames of the inside of the “gear box” and the “screws” are obviously hand hewn. I will have to photograph them again for a later post, but for now I have to post this halfway-decent shot of the spinner.

Here is some more information about yarn winders: http://waynehistoricalohio.org/2012/12/01/yarn-winder/

This was a very difficult shot for me. I tried a week or so ago and the results were terrible. After 21 frames today, this is improved, but I still think “better” is possible. I took a hint from Frank’s post of an organ keyboard — http://365project.org/frankhymus/365/2013-11-24 — and decided it was okay to crop out half of the “arms” without destroying the image.

For those of us old enough to have a 50-year memory, where were you 50 years ago today? Even though I was only in 2nd grade, I remember it well…

One year ago (“Gobble³”): http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2012-11-22
Two years ago (“Mirror images”): http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2011-11-22

[MaryBeth Dailey]

My mom had one of these on our brick hearth. It was rough hewn though. This one is fancy.,

[Rick Schies]

Oh wow, is this an item you were able to acquire? How neat it is. And yes, I was sitting n my 6th grade classroom when it all came about

[Lisa Pouncy]

As a spinner this type of thing really interests me. I had a 'niddy-noddy' which is I guess the unmechanical form of this contraption xx