when i took the spinning class i didn’t expect to enjoy spinning. i was just taking it to learn more about fiber and because it was a free class. but, alas, i did. whatcha gonna do?

but wheels are expensive.

while perusing craigslist one morning i noticed an ad for an ashford traditional wheel being sold for $40. it was in pretty rough shape, needed some parts replaced and the wheel put back together and balanced. but the seller was willing to part with it for only $25, so we took a chance on it.

a few parts were purchased, tom did some deconstructing, gluing and reconstructing:

and got it all fixed up:

it seems to work just fine:

the person selling the wheel bought it from the fiber art center, which, sadly, recently closed, and we’ve been able to determine that it was manufactured around 1976 (a bicentennial baby - just like us!)

we call it snail shell: