Carla Hosein is right. The wool winder or weasel goes around - I think 32 or
64 times and then a clicker pops. This measured her yarn. The spinner would
then tie a string or bow around that much yarn and then continue to spin and
add more yarn to the winder. By the way, the wool winder could be used right
off the spinning wheel. I'm not sure of the number of turns. A heck of a lot
of yarn is needed to make something.

A discussion off-shoot of this spinning and winding would be: that men
designed the spinning wheel "machine" and named the parts to appeal to the
women. Is that right? The idea is that this tedious and boring work
would/could be interesting to women if made fun. (This is a colonial
concept, not mine!)
*****************************
C.F.William Maurer
Director, Gomez Mill House
11 Mill House Road
Marlboro, NY 12542
(914) 236-3126
[log in to unmask]
www.gomez.org


The rhyme Pop Goes the Weasel is said to be a counting song for children to
use when winding yarn on a weasel (a wooden stand with a wheel, with about
eight spokes that have flat arms on the end, attached to the top, not easy
to describe).  They would sing this while winding the yarn and at the end
of the song the weasel would actually make a popping noise which lets you
know that a certain amount (like a yard) has been reached.  When they
reached the desired amount they could slide off the yarn and have a
measured skein ready for use.

Carla Hosein

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at
http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed
information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message
to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help"
(without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to
[log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff
Museum-L" (without the quotes).

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).