Heaven of Fiber Tools

Our summer vacation last year was a dream come true: I admired the colorful ponds in Yellowstone National Park, we saw bisons and moose and exquisite stone formations in Arches National Park. For me, however, visiting the legendary yarn shop a href=”https://www.theloopyewe.com” target=”_blank”>The Loopy Ewe (never seen so much pretty yarn in one place before!) and Schachtspindle in Boulder, Colorado were certainly the most exciting days of our trip!

You are probably familiar with the beautiful spinning wheels by Schacht like the Ladybug and the Matchless, but Schacht is also famous for looms, weaving equipment and other tools for the fiber arts.

We were extremely lucky because the idea to stop by at Schachtspindle came to me kind of spur-of-the-moment. We had one day before we had to leave from Denver, and I just called them and asked whether we could come visit. A little later someone called me back and spoke German (which confused me to no end) – it was Barry Schacht himself! He speaks German because he spend some time in Southern Germany, we learnt later. He said we could come over, and so my kids, my husband and I got a tour of the workshop. The very charming Benjamin Krudwig (a knitwear designer himself!) showed us around.

Here, a Matchless is polished up (this is exactly how we imagine someone who builds spinning wheels, right?)

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Elvis supervises the production process…

Weaving is Jane Patrick’s (Barry’s wife) passion – so it’s no wonder Schachtspindle has a focus on looms with impressive technology. After Benjamin showed one to me, I really, really wanted to take one home with me…! (Only they are so big they would not have qualified as appropriate luggage on the plane, I am sure).

Then we heard a little about Barry’s and Jane’s history with their company – they started out in the 1960s, when the Hippie style was en vogue and cords made from colorful yarn were desirable fashion accessories. They sold them on markets, and the tools to make them, too. Looms and Spinning Wheels followed, and Barry engineers them all himself. His coolest invention (I think!) is the Sidekick, a portable spinning wheel that is based on the idea of a bicycle.

And then a group pic with Jane and Barry in front of the woven picture that represents their company’s history. Thank you so much for having us – we were deeply impressed and went home to Germany happy!