Tuesday Is Hooking Day

Yep, that’s what I did today. I hooked a section of my Dreams rug. I’m so proud of myself! I replaced the L with a more subtle colour than white (gold!) and then I hooked around the words until I needed to cut some more green strips. Then I cut a bunch of strips. Then I realized that I’d better not hook any more right away or I won’t be able to do it tomorrow! It does take some wrist strength and it’s a movement I haven’t done in quite awhile. Like the crochet. Actually very like the crochet which is probably why I’m feeling it. It doesn’t actually hurt — but I’m starting to feel some strain in my forearms, wrists, and fingers. Also my ever-uncomfortable neck. I’ve always got to be aware of my neck where the pinched nerve is. I don’t need to lose the feeling in any more fingers, thank you very much. One is more than enough.

I had an interesting experience today and I forgot to take a blog picture. Duh! A gentleman brought over a very old briefcase charkha. This is a spinning wheel for cotton with a spindle instead of a flyer and 2 accelerating wheels so that it has a very high ratio. It folds up in a wooden case. I have a book charkha myself, not so old but also from India. Harvey said that he had spent quite a bit of time in India and this charkha came from Gandhi’s ashram and may actually have been used by him! It was missing some pieces but I was able to get it to spin. There were some cotton punis tucked into their own little compartment in the briefcase. Though I didn’t want to take off the ancient cotton that was already on the single spindle to actually spin on it and I could have used my own cotton roving. It was actually quite exciting and I could tell that Harvey was moved to see that the wheel would actually turn and could conceivably produce cotton thread again. Score one for Damselfly — I’m one of the few spinners around who actually enjoys spinning cotton! At least enough to know how a charkha works!

OK, you’ve got to check this out! Scroll down to the bottom of the page. This is Jonathan Bosworth. I’ve never thought of playing a book charkha like a musical instrument! This is so cool. Jonathan makes the most wonderful charkhas in the world. His attaché charkha is the only other spinning wheel that I’d really like to own. I’ve spun on one and it’s a dream! Maybe one day. His spindles are really nice too though I think the shafts are too short. Just me.