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returned my wheel yesterday, sniff.

posted 24 July 05 & filed under spinning

i’ve been thinking about this for a bunch of days now, and it certainly shouldn’t come as any surprise: i want a wheel. real bad.

i don’t feel right buying one right now – i’m too disorganized and anyway, august is going to be so busy, i won’t have a lot of time to spin then, so i’ve come up with good solid three pre-requisites before i can buy a wheel.

1) try out at least five different wheels. so far i’ve spun on:

i really want to try out a majacraft, a kromski, a louet, and a lendrum (thanks deb). i’m not really interested visually in a louet, but people seem to love them. i think i prefer castle wheels to saxony wheels, plus space is definitely an issue. i haven’t tried otherwise, but i’m digging the double treadle, single drive wheels. with that said, any suggestions/tips on buying a wheel from you spinners out there?

2) get rid of stuff. i have wayyy too much stuff – and as i mention all the time, my apartment is teeny, so the packrat in me shudders, but i intend on selling/donating some of the following:

and the real kicker:

3) no fines whatsoever for 60 days. this includes:

i’m horribly bad at getting fines. i was doing some budgeting last week – ack! horrible! hated it! – and i saw that 8% of my income in june went to fines. 8!! ay…. so. i decided if i do get a fine, i can’t get a wheel till 60 days from that day. hopefully this will help me get a grip on fines, cause i’m obviously out of control with them, yikes.

ah, and that’s the list. i feel good about it – a spinning wheel is most definitely a worthy prize to look forward to.

p.s. the top pic shows the results of my handspinning for two weeks. i’m knitting up a scarf (merino – in this weather! crrrazy) using this stitch. also, i’ve started a journal detailing my handspinning progress for all the various yarns i made. the close-up pic shows some olive merino that was pretty evenly spun, yay. the last pic is the best of my handspinning -it’s superwash corriedale, only four oz., and i got two skeins of a little more than 120 yards each, plus a smaller skein of 30 yards or so (gotta figure out how to ply all the way through bobbins at one stretch), and a teeny skein of singles and some navajo-ply that i tried out. the yarn is totally balanced (hoorah!) and so super soft, i love it.

Comments

Wow…lots of rules to follow in the next 2 months. You must REALLY want that wheel! :)

~ ck (Jul 24, 12:28 PM#)

Lendrum. Don’t forget to check out a Lendrum! I started with a Kiwi way back in December, and upgraded in the Spring to a Lendrum DT and ever since, my poor Kiwi has been gathering dust, poor thing!

~ Deb (Jul 24, 12:46 PM#)

You are sooo addicted. I love it!

I’m not crazy about the looks of the Louet or the Lendrum, which is why I was deciding between the Traveller and the Majacraft Rose. I wanted a castle wheel for portability and space constraints. I tried the Travller, and was seriously leaning in that direction, but I ended up ordering the Majacraft (without even trying one!). I love it, and it was definitely a good decision.

Go with your heart! :)

Your spinning looks great…you must have been a spinner in a previous life. :)

~ Liz (Jul 24, 01:31 PM#)

no spinning wheel advice for you, but damn! You’re so good with the goal-setting! Go, you :)

~ amanda (Jul 24, 05:06 PM#)

Wow, what a productive spinning rental. Your yarn looks lovely.I also absolutely love the journal idea, and what nice paper.

Good goals, you can do it.:)

~ Kitty Kitty (Jul 24, 08:02 PM#)

wow…when you really get into something, you go all out. the spun yarn is gorgeous…especially the multi-colored one you’re using to make your scarf.

um…still eagerly awaiting your exciting “aunty” news, so hurry up and tell us!

~ Lalitha (Jul 25, 07:55 AM#)

oh my god, you are so totally inspiring me to get a wheel! I really want to spin yarn..I need to wait, though, too. I need to make sure I have lots of space. And the funds for it are kind of important, too :). I think you have a good plan going. I’m so stoked for you!

~ Moni (Jul 25, 11:35 AM#)

I was wondering about a couple of things. First, what do you think of the Alden Amos book? I’ve been reading reviews of different spinning references and a lot of people seem to think Amos is annoyingly crotchety and gives one more super-detailed technical information than necessary. But his book also sounds like the most densely informative one that’s in wide circulation.

Also, how were you able to try out the different wheels you’ve used? Do you just know people who have wheels you can use, or did you have other resources? I know there’s a guild in Austin that lends wheels to members (though you have to pay some dues and go to some meetings for a couple of months first) and I’ve thought about trying that. But I wonder if when I’m a total beginner I’ll be able to judge if I like a wheel or not, if I can make one work at all.

~ susan (Jul 25, 02:34 PM#)

i thought i’d answer susan’s question here, in case anyone else is interested..

i was a little leery of the amos book too – i probably read the same reviews as you did ;) and supposedly he puts down castle wheels and makes fun of them, etc – but when i picked up the book and leafed though it, i was immediately impressed. it’s packed with info, and the writing is really accessible. the diagrams are clear, there’s humor in the footnotes, and yeah, he’s opinionated, but so far, 70 pages into the book, not in an annoying way at all. it’s laid out in a pretty clear way, so you can easily skip the parts that are more than you’re interested in. for example, he has tons of pages towards the end of the book devoted to constructing niddy-noddys, nostepinnes, and other spinning stuff – all of which i’m skipping for now. really, it’s a great great book – and already i feel like i’ve learned a ton about fiber preparation and basica fiber facts.

as for the wheels, during my class i tried out the kiwi and the traveler. when i returned my traveler (sigh), i treadled on the ashford traditional and a schact, but i wasn’t able to try spinning on them. some people in the los l.a. guild offered to let me try out their joys and other wheels at the next meeting (in august, i think..) and when i visit my family in maryland in a month, i’m going to head to a spinning store and try out some wheels there, just treadling again. basically, whenever i know there’s going to be wheels around, i made sure i’m either wearing clean socks or have nice clean feet, and i immediately ask if i can just treadle for a moment or two. sounds weird, but so far, it’s been fun. ;)

about the beginner thing, i was literally fifteen minutes into spinning on a wheel my first time ever when i was switched from the kiwi to the traveller. all i did was treadle two or three times – not even spinning yet! – and i immediately so happy and comfortable. sounds weird, again, but seems consistent with what other people say about wheels – some just ‘click’ with you, and some don’t. those that do, you know it the moment you sit in front of it.

long reply ;) hope it helps!

~ andrea (Jul 25, 03:21 PM#)

wow. that’s a lot of lovely spinning. your yarns already look quite balanced and smooth—in two weeks! it’s so impressive and exciting!

i’m sorry the wheel had to go back already. :( are you reading about wheels incessantly, dreaming of the one you will bring home? i have been. :) a drop spindle is not enough calm the desire. i hope you sail through the prerequisites, meet the wheel of your dreams, and bring it home to live with you soon.

i love the scarf you are knitting w/ your handspun. it’s gorgeous!!! and i also love the spinning journal—great idea, esp the way the strands are attached to the pages.

congrats aunty! were you able to work out the phone thing to feel a bit like you were there? hope your sis is well. can’t wait to see the new twins.

~ meowgirl (Jul 26, 01:12 AM#)

ANDREA! i’m so sorry i missed you… my bus took WAY longer than i had expected. we’ll have to get together next time i’m around! o, and make sure you get to winnie otherwise she’ll keep your goodies! _

~ joy (Jul 26, 10:11 AM#)

hee hee.. don’t worry about me hoarding your share of the goodies. now that the information is on the internets, i would be a fool to blatantly keep it. LoL. and you’ve been tagged! details on my blog.

~ winnie (Jul 26, 02:11 PM#)

WOW a lot of rules there, do you think you’ll manage to stick to them? I found you through stitch ya neck out. Your nieces are gorgeous. Oh yeah, you can always send your fabric stash my way! ;-)

~ Nichola (Jul 27, 05:32 AM#)

I bought a Kromski a few months ago and I LOVE IT. I live in an apartment, too, and it’s upright and doesn’t take very much room. Love it, love it, love it.

~ kristin (Aug 2, 08:02 PM#)

sooo, here goes…i had no nearby wheelie dealers when i bought mine, i got a louet s15, which i love. it looks like it came from ikea. it kind of did. it is a wonderful wheel. the reason i leaned that way was the the orifice, or opening that the spun yarn comes out of, is really huge, which is good for chunky or novelty yarns. i really love my wheel, at the time, i was told that double treadle is not such a big deal, but then i used my spinning teacher’s ashford traditional which is a double treadle and it is very natural, takes no effort at all. the orifice is not even half the size of a louet though. it really just depends on what sort of stuff you think you will want to spin…if it will be mainly thin, even yarn, most wheels will be fine, really really thin yarn, ask someone who does that…the only thing i wish was different about my wheel is the double treadle. i have some problems with my legs getting crampy after a while, which is a few hours. on a good note, i know that the ashfords all have a double treadle kit, so if you wanted to go cheaper and buy the kit later, it is cheap. that is good! adrian from midnight sky fibers sells louet at cost, and is great for advice. feel free to ask me if i can help with anything else…have you hand spindled yet? it is fun…something cheap you could do in the meantime?

~ natasha fialkov (Aug 16, 07:44 PM#)

ok, i didn’t realize you have already used a wheel. dur. so forget the hand spindle thing. also, find out of there is a spinning guild in your area and let them know you are looking for a wheel, someone may get rid of one for cheap. my friend got an ashford traveller for 100 bucks! not even right!

~ natasha fialkov (Aug 16, 07:47 PM#)