"Mavis"

When I was a kid we use to go out to my grandparents farm out at a place called Wellington in the New South Wales plains. It was usually a 9 hour trip by car which was normally cut into 4.5 hour days, as my mum was the only one driving it really took it out of her. Anyway, my grandparents lived on a huge 2 000 acre property; which for most of it's history grew wheat and wool. I can remember spending time up in the shearing shed when the group of shearers came around, I honestly can't remember a lot of things as it was when I was about 6 or 7 at the time. There was also a time where I watched the sheep go into the dip and another time I got a huge stripe of coloured paint on me from when they were marking the sheep so they wouldn't get confused with the neighbours sheep after shearing (at least I think that's what it was used for) and I cried because my top was now painted. I do remember the times there was poddy lambs and we'd help feed them with 2 litre coke bottles with a teat attached to the top. I'm sure most of them went back out into the flock and ended up having babies of their own (well the young ewes anyway).

My grandmother was always the crafty woman and there was never a time we were out there when there wasn't freshly cooked biscuits or a cake for us to eat. Even if the outside toilet was always full of daddy long leg spiders (amongst other not so nice spiders) I loved going out there and I never really wanted to leave. I learnt how to crochet, cross stitch and embroider as well as help my rather poor cooking skills.

Sadly back in the late 90's she suffered a stroke which knocked out part of her memory and she knew almost everyone's name but said 'he' instead of 'she'. Then she suffered another one which knocked out almost all of her left side and most of what remained of her memory. My grandfather was then diagnosed with cancer in September 2004, not long after selling the family farm and he had plans to go on holiday, but in February 2005 he passed away. A few months later my grandmother suffered yet another stroke and a few days later she too passed away.


Over the past few days I've been chatting with some Aussie ladies on Ravelry and we were discussing names for wheels and I thought "I've never named mine." After quite a bit of thought I decided to go with "Mavis", which as you've probably already guessed was my grandmother's name. Although she was never a spinner I believe she had a desire to but because the wool they produced was their income keeping some to spin was like throwing money away.

In her honour I named my wheel after her. And sometimes I feel like I have someone lending me a hand when I'm spinning. I'm sure she's watching over me, feeling very proud that I've taken up a rather rare art and am going pretty well at it.


As is obvious I've also put my 2 spindles in the picture as well. I'm still doing the chocolate Romney on the oak one and am spinning a merino/cashmere blend on the heartagram one.