Most confusing Christmas pressie

I opened the wooden thingy first...I was a bit confused. I love vintage things and have all sorts of bits and bobs including things to fix fishing nets (don't ask) but this had me really confused. My bought them in a shop in Howarth, the lady was using the wooden thingy to display the plates she was selling. As I have a collection of plates on my kitchen wall (nicer than it sounds) my mum thought this would be nice but she also liked the idea of the wooden thingy and talked the woman into letting we have both. The wooden thingy is actually part of a loom from a local mill - pretty cool, you can still see some writing on it.