The Marshfield School of Weaving Digital Catalog Project But a happy discovery of another identical wheel with a clear mark led her to the maker, Ernest Mechelke of Wisconsin. With help from a program called Dstretch she could read some of the letters. Having restored an orphaned wheel, Susan Hector wanted to decipher the name stenciled on it, but it was barely legible. An Ernst Mechelke Spinning Wheel from Wisconsin Karen introduces us to these well-built wheels and some of the men who made them. Chris Nyborg from the Norwegian Institute of Local History provided genealogical information about the families of the wheel makers. With help from the members of the Antique Spinning Wheel Forum on Ravelry she studied many examples and noted the distinguishing traits. Karen MacEwan discovered that she had acquired a “Gyllandrokk,” a spinning wheel from Gylland in Norway. Database programs can compile digital records about an object so that its history is preserved. A computer program offers a means to decipher barely legible marks. An expert from another country can provide genealogical information on wheel makers.

International online communities allow comparisons of far-flung examples of a style of wheel. In this issue we look at several ways that computer technology, which we all take for granted, makes it easier to study spinning wheels and other textile tools.

Spinning wheel computer program