By BECKY THOMAS
Staff Reporter
Ellen Jones' home south of Cheney is dotted with evidence of her 25-year hobby. There's a crocheted silk scarf on the coat tree, a bag of thread in a cupboard, two spinning wheels in the corner and countless items Jones has spun, woven and knitted herself.
“I will always spin from time to time. I just don't do it like I did,” she said. “It was all day long.”
Jones inherited her grandmother's spinning wheel more than 50 years ago. It's intricately carved, sturdy and compact.
“She spun for me once, but she didn't spin much anymore,” she said. “The only thing she did with a spinning wheel was to get enough yarn to make mittens and hats, because she had nine kids.”
Now Jones is the same, spinning yarn from various materials and crocheting or knitting the yarn into hats, scarves, and mittens for her children and grandchildren. But 25 years ago, when she was being taught the art of spinning by a neighbor, she said she wouldn't stop until she got it right.
“I wouldn't leave it alone until I mastered it,” she said. “One night about midnight I said, ‘Oh! I got it, it's flowing!'”
Though the basics of spinning are simple—pumping the treadle with the foot and holding the fibers with your hand, letting the wheel pull and twist the fibers into thread—Jones said every spinner's technique is different. She learned that when, newly inducted into spinning, Jones placed an ad looking for other spinners in the area hoping to start a spinning group.
“I couldn't believe how many people came out from under the rocks,” she said. “There was a lot from this area that were interested in spinning. And one thing just kind of led to another.”
Twenty five years later, Jones has attended workshops on spinning and dying, has spun everything from yak hair to silk to the hair from her daughter's dog and now offers free spinning demonstrations at the Cheney Historical Museum twice a month. But she said the best thing about her hobby has been the friendships with the other members of the spinning groups she's attended.
“Actually, we share our lives with each other, after you get to know them,” she said. “I can go anywhere and walk into a spinning group and feel very comfortable. There's just an aura about them that they have that other groups don't have.”
While Jones enjoys her old-fashioned hobby, she said she doesn't worry that spinning will be another skill lost to technology and modern conveniences.
“It's about self-satisfaction for me,” she said. “I can't sit down and watch TV without doing something.”
Jones started spinning on an old great wheel at the Cheney Historical Museum last month. The wheel, measuring nearly five feet tall, was recently repaired and Jones has enjoyed showing people how it's used.
“Everything flows on a great wheel,” she said. “It's kind of a pretty thing to do and there is not very many great wheels around anymore, intact.”
To see Jones in action, visit the Cheney Historical Museum, 420 First St., the second Friday and last Saturday of every month from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Becky Thomas can be reached at [email protected].
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