A Schacht Matchless Double Treadle
This post was written as part of a daily Instagram hashtag for spinners in the month of January 2017. The tag for the day was to talk about your spinning wheel.
I saved my money for two years in order to buy a new spinning wheel. The wheel that I had learned on worked OK, but I was always having to waste a lot of time fiddling with the screws to keep the base from wobbling with every treadle. It was a good starter wheel, but I would have loved a brand new wheel. A brand new wheel carried a heavy pricetag, about $1200 for the wheel that I really wanted. After a lot of research and questioning of knowledgeable and experienced spinners, I knew that what I really wanted was a Schacht Matchless Double Treadle; the cadillac of spinning wheels.
Every time we were near a shop that sold spinning wheels, I would go in and sit down at a wheel. After a few treadles, my husband would smile and ask me , “You’re getting it, right?” I would shake my head no, we would leave, and a few months later we would repeat the entire process when I would sit at a different wheel in a different shop. “You’re getting it, right? Is it the kind that you want? A Schacht?” he would ask me, impressing me with the fact that he could spit out the actual brand name of spinning wheel that I wanted. That was true love as far as I was concerned. Again, I would just shake my head and sometimes add a comment like, “It’s too expensive,” or, “It’s only a single treadle, I want a double treadle.”
Finally, in Oct. 2016, on our trip home across the state after a funeral, we stopped at another yarn shop. I knew that they had a Schacht Matchless Double Treadle in the store (I had called earlier in the week), but again, it would be very expensive. This time, I went into the shop with my husband and one of my older daughters. I asked the shopkeeper if she had the spinning wheel in stock and she said that they had just sold one a day or two earlier, but that they had one left. It was a limited edition cherry wood Schacht Matchless Double Treadle spinning wheel. Ohhhhhhhh……. yeah…… I would NOT be going home with THAT wheel!
I sat down and began to treadle. According to both my husband and my older daughter, a smile quickly rose from my mouth to my eyes. I sat down deeply in the chair as the shopkeeper gave me a handful of wool to practice spinning. As I sat in a meditative trance, the wheel whooshing, my feet rhythmically pressing down one treadle and then the next, my husband asked the shopkeeper how much the wheel cost. She told us the price, $1400.00, and said, “It’s a limited edition cherry wood. They only make a small number of these wheels every 10 years.” Ohhhhhhhhhh…….. yeah…… I would NOT be going home with THAT wheel! Limited editions were something that I would never pay for.
“You’re getting it, right?” my husband asked, with a more serious look in his eyes than I had ever seen. Before I could begin shaking my head, he jumped and said, “You have been looking at wheels for years. You have the money set aside. This is the wheel you want. I like that it’s cherry wood and not the typical wood that they use for spinning wheels. I’m tired of you putting this purchase off any longer. YOU ARE getting it!” With that, he turned and walked over to the counter and told the woman I would be buying it.
Before I could even argue, the bag of bobbins and an orifice hook were placed in my hand along with some wool that my husband had picked out for himself. “You can spin yarn to make me a hat. Or mittens. I’m not letting you leave here without that wheel.”
And that’s how this cherry wood, limited edition Schacht Matchless Double Treadle spinning wheel came into my life. I named him Schatzi, which is German for sweetheart. It seemed perfect for so many reasons.
I still haven’t spun that wool into yarn. Almost exactly a year to the date of this purchase, my husband died unexpectedly from cancer related heart issues. He was 54 years old and had been diagnosed only 5 months earlier. Tomorrow marks three months without him. Later this month, I will go to a spinning retreat and proudly bring Schatzi with me. I will gently press the treadles, and begin to feel the peacefulness of spinning deep in my soul. Hopefully, at some point, a smile will grow from my mouth to my eyes as I spin his wool. I have no idea what I will make with it, but every time I sit down at my spinning wheel, I will be so happy that my life-long Schatzi forced me to get my limited edition cherry wood Schatzi.
If you, or someone you care about is dealing with grief, here are some tips for coping with grief from people who are dealing with it themselves!
