Spinning and Freedom

Recently we had a man come and do some work for us. Whilst he worked I held the drop light for him. I could tell by his accent that he was likely not originally from the United States. His name was Vladimir and he told me where he was originally from. He had come eighteen years ago, from a country that had been under the oppressive rule of communism. I told him my family had been in this country for nearly 400 years. It was not always easy to understand him but in two hours, when there was a lull in the concentrated work, I would converse with him about his life in the old country. I asked him if he liked it here, he said yes, then I said but then you must miss some things of the old country, he nodded. I guess many times, no matter how bad it was, peoples hearts in some ways long for their homeland. He said "much different from here." He talked about the children going to school and that they behaved. I got the impression they knew if they didn't behave they'd get beaten by the teacher. Again, he said "much different from here." In talking to him I found out that they had raised angora rabbits for the wool and the meat. Rabbits, ah fiber, I thought. I asked him what his mother did with the wool. With hand motions he indicated using a drop spindle; his mother would spin the angora to try to earn some money. Ah spinning I thought, the universal language, this I could talk to him about. I asked him what she did with her spun wool. He made hand motions to describe something that would go over ones head and then made a triangle shape in the air. After hanging the light on a nail, I quickly ran to the peg board and grabbed my handspun, handknit Tasha Tudor style shawl and placed it over my head like he indicated that his mother would have worn it. I said "Like this?" and nodded my head. He said yes and nodded his head. He indicated that it was a different size but I'm not sure if it was bigger or smaller. When his work was completed, I showed him my Kromski spinning wheel and he was very interested to see it and happy I showed it to him and he said "very nice wheel." I told him it is a Kromski Minstrel and I love it! I told him about the Kromskis being from Poland and how they had succeeded in making and selling their wheels after the breakup of the communist rule.

Isn't it a blessing that Vladimir now lives in a country where free enterprise makes it possible for him to earn a fair wage by using his expertise, and in the process I can have needed work well done. It's wonderful that most people in this country can just spin for the pleasure of it, if they want to. I enjoyed my couple of hours spent with Vladimir, he was very polite and he said "nice meeting you." We applaud Vladimir and his mother and freedom! We applaud the Kromskis and freedom!

by Diane Shepard Johnson, spinner and lover of freedom

In the photographs above and below, Diane's lovely wheel was made by the Kromski family.

At the ready spinners all for today is St. Distaff's Day.

Diane's writings, January 2005:

On to Page 44 of Corgyncombe Cottage & Corg'ery

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Photographs by Diane Shepard Johnson

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