Shaker wheel for sale!

Fred just finished restoring this early Shaker wheel. It came to us from Hadley, MA. Dr. Michael Taylor, who co-authored Spinning Wheels and Accessories, indicated after seeing a photo of it that is a very early Shaker piece attributable to the trusteeship of Nathaniel Merrill. The raised initials N. M. (with a backwards “N”) are stamped in the end grain of the table. Nathaniel Merrill was Trustee of the Sabathday Lake, Maine Shaker Community from 1796 to 1806.

The wheel came with a flyer that may be original, but which was too worn to use. Fred made a new flyer with a ¼” orifice. The pitman as well as one part of the treadle was replaced. One of the maidens appears to be an earlier repair. The wheel comes with three custom-made bobbins and is ready to spin for decades more! $450.00 SOLD

FLAK oversize cables

Well here it is! The horseshoe cables are 12 stitches wide and I used the giant cable which is 6 stitches wide instead of some of the others. The two large cables repeat on the same rows so are pretty easy to keep track of. I made the most mistakes on the seed stitch and am still trying to decide whether to ladder down and fix a couple of mistakes near the shoulder.

I've never done a knit along before and am enjoying it immensely. It's a great way to learn. Here's where you can find it http://www.bigskyknitting.com/FLAK/KNITALONG.HTML

Branching out scarf

This is only my second excursion into lace knitting. The Branching Out pattern is on Knitty.com and was particularly good for someone just getting started with lace knitting because the pattern gives the number of stitches one is *supposed* to have after each row.

I used a lifeline which also helped. At one point I had to frog below the lifeline because I had failed to count the number of stitches in the row before installing the lifeline. Mirror image patterns are especially good for beginning lace knitters because the number of stitches on each half can be compared.