Thank you for the information and pictures of wheels. I had heard of wheels with a string zigzagging between spokes for a drive wheel in China. Or maybe they were for reeling silk? My mother grew up in Iran, she remembers lots of women spinning with a drop spindle. Only once can she recall seeing a wheel, and she thinks it was for winding on. She hasn't specified winding for what? I suspect plying. She also remembers the shepherds would knit multi colored socks from rug yarn as they watched the flocks.
My Iraqi friend enjoyed being buried in links for spinning wheels. He liked the wood work, wanted to know why it made him think of Vikings. He doesn't recall ever seeing Iraqis spin, knitting is popular in multiple colors though. He thinks they discarded spinning in order to be modern, like most of our ancestors did. However he has seen Bedu from Shams using spinning wheels, but his memory is vague, too vague to ask things like spindle or flyer?, or even wooden or string drive wheel rim? Does anyone remember the article in SpinOff about visiting dye and carpet work shops in Turkey? How were they producing their yarns? I assume it was being commercially produced. I asked some young people I know from Turkey and they looked politely bemused. They know I am an eccentric knitter of socks. They want me to know there is more to Turkey than carpets. But how was the yarn produced for all those rugs? Tribal rugs probably were produced from drop spindled yarns, besides any brought from town. I guessed town rug yarns, produced in workshops, would be made on spinning wheels. However I now suspect that yarn production was something fit in among ones other duties, so drop spinning was the norm. But this doesn't quite feel right to me. Carpets take a lot of yarn, and town rugs were workshop creations. Some were cottage industry. It seems hard for a drop spinner to keep up with a weaver to me. But then if every one is spinning whenever they have half a moment (I wish I could spin and walk, must practice more) a lot of yarn is produced. Part of my curiosity comes from a lecture I heard Judith McKenzie give to the Navajo-Churro Association last year. She commented upon the sheep-wool-rug thread that runs from Afghanistan through the Middle East, North Africa, Spain to Mexico. She had been struck by some design similarities, and sheep similarities. Which makes me wonder if the short tail sheep my mother remembers from Iran had coarse fleece for rugs and the fat tails had a finer fleece? I don't know. (need to ask Judith, hmmmm?) Side note. My mother gave me an incredible sweater made in Nepal. It is a coarse singles (I think a Churro type fleece rather than long wool, the crimp is finer.) It says it is all natural dyes. I can pick out the Saxony indigo blue and some others. It is all color work similar to Fairisle. Most would find it way to scratchy, it really is rug wool, though my daughter and I love it. Mirjiam, sorry to hear you hurt yourself, I hope you heal rapidly. I often find myself referring back to a comment you made years ago about introducing new technology to people. The subject was a PeaceCorp worker wanting to introduce spinning wheels to some women who made extra money with their yarn production. People here were commenting on interfering with a peoples cultures etc. You commented that the people in question could decide for themselves, after being introduced to the idea, weather it would work for them or not. We shouldn't make such decisions for them. It has been a most useful reminder in my life, Thankyou. Spinningly, Turan To stop mail temporarily mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: set nomail To restore send: set mail
