Lori and Phyllis Mirco share a yarn about rediscovering the ancient art of spinning in Albany

It is at his spinning wheel that Lori Mirco feels most content. With his aches and pains all but forgotten and the soothing hum of his wheel taking over, he enters a relaxed state of mind doing what he does best — creating. Lori and Phyllis Mirco are the ultimate husband and wife duo. After Lori is finished spinning a “skein” it is washed and dyed if needed before Phyllis gets busy with her knitting needles or crochet hook, piecing together jumpers and blankets. Lori is a relative newcomer to the world of spinning, taking it up as a hobby two years ago when he joined the local Albany Spinners group. While he was mostly self-taught, the 82-year-old grew up watching his mother hand-spin in their house nestled in the Italian Alps. “It started when I was a kid, my mum used to do all this sort of thing,” he said. “I eventually ended up with a whole lot of wool and spinning wheels at home. I thought I better start doing what mum used to do.” As the firstborn child, Lori said he was taught many skills including how to knit, crochet and sew. “Mum used to spin by hand, what intrigued me was I wanted to find out how the wheel did it,” he said. His mother would let the plied wool hang down a three-storey house then “pull it up quickly and wind it up and start again”, Lori said, mimicking the action with his hands. He would watch his mother weave it with a loom to “make blankets and all sorts”. Lori immigrated to Australia in 1955. As an Albany resident of about half a century, he met his future wife Phyllis dancing at different community halls around the region. “At Narrikup, Napier had the best floor,” Phyllis said. “We’ve been married for 441/2 years.” Originally from Katanning, Phyllis — like her husband — learned to knit from her mother. “I used to do a fair bit of sewing when we had kids,” she said. “When we got married I made Lori a suit and shirt, my dress and identical dresses for our three girls.” Speaking to Inspire from Vancouver Arts Centre, Lori’s right foot stays flat on the pedal as he concentrates on running the wool between his fingers, his wife watching on. The spinning wheel is estimated to date back to the 11th century and was the predecessor to textile machinery developed during the industrial revolution. Lori rejected the notion that spinning was a dying art. When Lori isn’t at his spinning wheel, you might find him creating aeroplane models constructed out of aluminium cans. “I’m one of those people, I either sleep or I’ve got to do something, I can’t stand sitting around getting bored, so this is where I am now,” he said. His plane-crafting hobby was inspired by childhood memories and an urge to re-purpose some of the aluminium cans destined for landfill. “When I was a little boy, when granddad and my father came back from the war as prisoners of war, they brought me back a plane made out of baked bean cans,” he said. Lori now makes five different models of planes including a bomber, helicopter, bi and tri-planes that he sells at markets around the region. In spinning, he has found a new passion to keep him motivated. “It’s actually recycling wool that’s not wanted, most of this wool is stuff people didn’t want,” he said. “It’s making something for people that need it.”