Although it’s taken me a while I have finally finished this cushion.
Front of the cushion. A tufted chequer board that is very tactile and squishy.
The front is Rya tufted and woven with a British wool rug yarn on a linen/cotton warp. The black tufts are Shetland staples and the cream is a mixture of Devon/Dorset staples. Although it’s not that clear in the photo, the squares are reversed; black edging with a cream centre and cream edging with a black centre.
The reverse of the cushion is a faux waffle weave in the same rug yarn that underlies the Rya tufts. Because my rigid heddle loom is only a 20 inch wide, the cushion is composed of four pieces.
I took the opportunity to insert a zip in the centre back seam.
Instead of feathers or polyester wadding, the cushion is filled with a pad of lofty carded wool fleece. I will use this cushion to make my chair extra comfortable whilst spinning at my wheel.
Whilst digging in our loft today to make space for the plumber to run new pipes, I found a fleece!
I couldn’t believe what I saw, because I was sure I remembered throwing it away years ago, and I mean years…probably the best part of twenty years! I can say that with quite a lot of certainty because it was given to my Mother when she wanted to learn to spin on her Westbury wheel. She had bought it in the 1970s I think, in Glastonbury, as a kit. My Father made it up for her and she stained it a dark walnut colour. But she didn’t have any fleece – or to be honest the faintest idea how to spin. A friend of a friend found her two Jacob fleeces from a local shepherd in Somerset, but I don’t believe she ever got any yarn off the wheel.
Not bad for a 20 year old fleece
I ‘inherited’ the wheel (and the fleece) when I bought a flat and had space to house it. Once again it sat unused, and the fleece sat lonely and unloved as well. When I had children, the wheel became the object of their attention. They delighted in treadling it and bits fell off.
After my Mother died I took the drastic decision to sell it to save it, if you see what I mean. I so regret that now, I wish I’d put it in the loft, which is somehow where this fleece ended up – I must have chucked the other one, or maybe gave it with the wheel.
Since then, I have acquired an Ashford Traveller and a Traditional, but I would love to have another Westbury for sentimental reasons. So if anyone is looking to sell a Westbury wheel do get in touch with me first.
So today the fleece saw the light of day after many years. I thought it would be absolutely ruined, if not full of moth, but no, it is fine. I don’t think it was very greasy to start with, and there isn’t much VM. I’m in the middle of a test wash of a part of it to see what happens. I can’t believe it has survived, but I’ve given parts a good tug and there isn’t any breakage, and very little discolouration. It is a beautiful chocolate brown and cream, so I plan to separate the colours and spin it as a tweed-effect, providing all goes well.
It will lovely if I can spin it; a sort of homage to my Mum who never quite got it together to spin it herself, much as she would have loved to. If I could spin it on a Westbury, my homage would be complete!
Vikki Haffenden 