1925

Treadle Spinning Wheel

Sent, undated

The collection of the Raetian Museum includes 34 spinning wheels of different types. These were indispensable for the handicrafts, which women produced during winter often working together in «Spinning Rooms». The thread for fabrics and clothes was spun from wool, hemp and flax.

In the case of this upright tread-wheel, the flywheel rotated the flyer, in which the thread was twisted and wound onto the bobbin. The distaff with the fibres that were to be spun was put into the lateral spindle. Good spinners were in demand, for «she who spins inferior thread, weaves poor cloth», says a proverb from the Engadine.