A beautiful gift!

A swift!

I received a wonderful gift the other day, from a person who may not have even understood fully what a truly wonderful and appreciated thing this is. She's never even seen my spinning wheel, so she had no way of knowing that it is the exact color as my spinning wheel. The wood turning looks as if it was even done by the same craftsman. And this... the weekend of the community wide yard-sale... To think that she could have set it out and instead she set it aside for me. It's a very small delicate piece with a stamp on the bottom which says "Made in Italy" The woman who gave it to me, Ida, hails from Brooklyn and is as Italian as they come. I hope to find that there might be a little bit more to the story behind it.

For those who are not familiar with the job of a swift... I am sure you have seen cartoons of a patient old man with his hands held out while the old wife is wrapping a ball of yarn... if she had a swift he could be out golfing. It allows you to wind or unwind a large hank of yarn (for example for dying) without it becoming a tangled mess.