My father, John F. Schlesinger, recently told me a very interesting
story of his grandparents' experiences in spinning in olden times. I will relate
it in the way he told me:
"My grandparents, Phillip and Marie
Schlesinger, came from Germany in olden days. Grandfather worked as a hired man
before they settled down to farming on the prairie.
"Grandfather raised
many sheep. Every spring he would shear them. It took almost all spring to do
it. He had to shear the sheep by hand, which took a long time. When he had them
all sheared, the wool had to be washed.
"Sometimes the sheep would get
into the straw stack, which would leave much chaff on their wool. This had to be
taken out. They would also get many cockleburs in their wool, which took a long
time to get out.
"It took almost all summer to get the wool thoroughly
clean and dry. It was very hard work to get it ready to spin into yarn. When it
was thoroughly dry, grandfather had to pull it apart in order to get it soft and
white.
"Grandfather had an old spinning-wheel. It was an old machine,
standing on three wooden legs. It had a big wheel in the middle between two
frames. It had a pedal on the bottom and had to be pumped by the feet. The wheel
was attached by a string to a big spool.
"It was very hard work to spin
the wool. Grandfather had to have much patience in doing it. He had to pull the
wool with one hand while he held it with the other one. In this way the wool
would go to the wheel. He had to pull it to get it straight and thin enough to
spin. Many times the wool would break and slip out of his hands. He would have
to stop pumping and get the wool straightened out again before he could go on
spinning.
"When the wool was spun into yarn, he would put it on another
big wheel. This wheel was turned by hand in a very slow manner. He would hold
the wool in his hand and let it slip through to the wheel. When there was a
great deal of wool on the wheel, he would pull a wooden pin out and take the
wool off the wheel. He would wrap the wool into big skeins with his hands.
"Sometimes he would dye the yarn before putting it into skeins. Other times
he would let the yarn stay white and dye it after it was knitted into different
things.
"Grandmother had five little silver knitting needles about ten
inches long. She always knitted in sort of a square. She would work with two
needles at a time. When she took one needle out, she would put another in.
"She would knit the yarn into scarfs, sweaters, mittens, stockings, shawls
and other useful things. She would knit these things in. the winter. They would
sell many things, but would give most of it away to their grandchildren for
Christmas presents.
"Whenever these things would get holes in them, she
would cut out the poor spots and knit in new places."
Extracted 08 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from Stories of Pioneer Days in La Salle County, Illinois, by Grammar Grade Pupils, published in 1932, page 101.
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