Saturday, September 20, 2008

$75.00

You know the stories. You've spent years trotting in and out of antique and consignment shops in search of a working spinning wheel you can afford. You hope to be lucky, like your spinning friend who found a perfect, intact, working-condition Country Craftsman wheel in someone's trash by the roadside and took it home, and now has another gorgeous wheel in her collection. (True story, and I don't begrudge her one bit, but I still wish something like that would happen to me with, say, a Timbertops Chair Wheel, or a Martha?)

OK, so this isn't as good a story as the lady who adopted a Country Craftsman from someone's garbage, but it's ALMOST as good. Look what came home with me today!I had taken Daphne to a local antique shop on a whim, just for a lark, since gas is expensive and we need to have larks closer to home. In the very first booth I found this wheel. I looked it over and it seemed good. I looked at the price tag and it seemed even better. Only $75.00. True, the whorl had some chips in it, there was only one bobbin, and its distaff was missing, but...$75.00? No matter what kind of a wheel it was, I knew I could get it running in a matter of minutes. What to do? Well, for starters, make my twelve-year-old crawl underneath the thing and see if there was a name on the underside.

There was. I was astounded, picked the wheel up, and tilted it to read for myself.

"Country Craftsman."

Holy sh*t! I have wanted one of these for a very long time, and thought I would never find one I could afford, now that the builder has retired.

Near one of the legs is carved a number 2. Could it be that this is one of his earliest wheels? Does anyone know if the maker did indeed number them as they were built? It was an exciting enough find as is, but if it's an early wheel, that would be even more exciting!

And I still can't believe it was only $75.00!!!!!

While googling in search of spare parts, I found ads for used wheels like this, for sale. $450.00 and up!

I shan't complain about not finding this for free in someone's trash. $75.00 vs. $450.00 and up? Well, that's the kind of math I can do VERY quickly.

Jeeze, I have paid more for some of my spindles than I did for this wheel! (Golding...koff...koff...)

Now am on a quest for a replacement whorl (though the chipped one does work) and some extra bobbins. I may have found a source already, but if anyone else knows of others, please give me a holler via the comments.

And for a musical suggestion I really feel I must make, please visit Doveman and listen to his song "Castles," which is on his streaming player. This is my second favorite after a song called "Ghost" which he is not currently streaming. If you know who Nick Drake is and love him, as I do, then you will find that Doveman's voice is even more poignant. His lyrics aren't the easiest to decipher, due to the intentional softness of his vocal presentation, but you get most of them through earbud headphones. And this young man is someone whose voice you WANT to hear that intimately. Trust me. And once he's in your head, he stays there, and you don't want him to go away. I have been starting most of my workdays in the past few weeks with listening to his latest CD, "With My Left Hand I Raise The Dead." It really is a stunning piece of work. Please check it out when in a quiet, reflective mood, and you will love it. I've been thinking for awhile now, of building my own music compilation to use whilst having Reiki, or treating myself, and you can rest assured there will be some Doveman songs in the mix when I finally get around to putting it together. I can't tell you enough, how glad I am to have found this fella.

6 comments:

judy said...

Great find, Paula. Good for you!

zebisisdesigns said...

That is definitely the appearance of the good karma you had (and have) coming your way. Congrats!!

Alison said...

YAY!!!! How cool is that?! Congratulations!!!!

--AlisonH at spindyeknit.com

Jennifer said...

That's really a great find! I came across one earlier this year for a great price too. They do exist; you just have to be in the right place at the right time. :)

troyin17331 said...

Nice, I'm not sure when you posted this but I am guessing by now you know the number (2) on the leg is the hole the leg goes into. I have 2 ccsw's and a friend of mine has 1 bobbins and whorls are available here. http://www.dettasspindle.net/Spinningwheels/CountryCraftsman.html
And I am currently haveing orifices made. Also there is a guy on etsy with both bobbins and whorls I think

CP Warner said...

Thanks for the info! I actually posted this entry a few years ago, and later the very same day, if I recall correctly, I contacted Detta via e-mail and ordered extra bobbins and a new whorl. I've not spun a lot on it lately, but probably will resurrect it over the winter and get reacquainted. :-)