Spinning Wheels: January 2006 Archives
Well, actually, it starts with a trip to Marengo and a visit with Toni Neil at the Fold (I'm just going to gush for a second and say again how awesome both she and her store are. If you need a wheel or fiber and you're in Illinois, you really shouldn't miss out on a trip to visit her!). But the adventure at home starts with this:
Those of you who have also been on this trip probably know what is in this box, even though you don't have a good clear image of the label. For those who don't, a couple of hints: 1) It comes from Canada but will be making it's permanent residence in the US; 2) It's bretheren are well loved by many spinners and 3) I waxed poetic about it in last Monday's post.
Nothing quite like getting one's birthday present just a little bit early and then getting the joy of bringing it to life in your home office. At first, I didn't think it was possible for a whole spinning wheel, two different flyers a lazy kate and 4 bobbins to fit into this box. But, lo and behold, my compact wheel, is, in fact, compact.
And it assembles quite quickly. Screwing down two pegs (the one at the base of the wheel and the one that holds the mother of all to the top of the wheel) and putting the drive band in place is all you need to do to assemble this wheel. Even the husband was a bit surprised at how quickly it came together. The mother of all you see works with both the standard flyer and the fast flyer. There's also a separate unit for the plying flyer that has an enormous orifice and works with some very large bobbins (I also got 2 extra regular sized bobbins and an extra plying bobbin because I know myself fairly well when it comes to projects. I can never work on just one). In addition to portability and storability, I also wanted a wheel that I could grow with. The extra flyers give this wheel a lot of growth potential for me.
You'd think that that would be enough goodies for one day, but when you buy a wheel from the Fold, Toni also makes sure you get a few extra goodies. One of them is a Lendrum niddy noddy (which I am going to need to finish before I use since it doesn't come sealed; if you look closely, you can see it behind the wheel in the picture above), which comes with two different sized center bars so that it can be either a small or a big niddy. As luck would have it, the large version is bigger than the large niddy noddy I already have, which will be a big plus now that I have that big ol' plying head at my disposal. The other thing she sent me home with was this:
Good golly, Miss Molly! It's a whole lot of a merino and alpaca blend in a fabulous chocolate brown. When Toni told me she was going to send me home with some fiber, I thought it would just be a few ounces. But after I picked, she just pulled down everything she had in the bin and packed it in a bag for me. There has got to be at least 2 pounds of the stuff. To quote Toni When you get bored with it, pass it along!*. Even more surprising was the fact that someone laid claim to the yarn almost even before we left the store. It seems that chocolate brown merino and alpaca yarn is acceptable when it comes to man sweaters. Clearly this will become one of those long term labor of love spinning projecfs -- to create enough DK weight yarn to make John a fabulous sweater. Good thing the man I live with is patient.
In addition to the wheel and the fiber, I also left with another yarn stash addition.
Because one can never have enough Socks that Rock! Actually, though, the Beryl color is for John and the Amber Waves will also become gift socks. So even though I was buying more yarn, it wasn't for me!
Like every trip out to the Fold, I also learned some new things. I now understand how the Winsome Timbers/Lennox wheel (that I couldn't figure out last weekend) works. Because it has both Scotch tensioning and can be a true double drive wheel it's a little more complicated. But I did find it to be a pleasure to spin on. Not sure that it overtakes the Lendrum Saxony for first place in my "dream wheel" list, but I certainly wouldn't turn one out in the cold either!
And speaking of spinning well, I am very happy with the Lendrum! I spun a little from the brown brick and I got out some of the natural colored wool and silk blend and was a happy spinnner with both of them. Not only does this wheel spin smoothly, but it's very quiet. Even John commented on this. The tensioning is easy to adjust and I love the control I get from the double treadle. And, of course, it's a real treat to be able to spin onto the entire bobbin. I think it's going to be a long time before I want to go back to a wheel with those hooks!
In honor of my new friend, I thought I would engage in a little polling. I know that I this is probably not exhaustive, and I haven't listed specific types, but now that I've taken the plunge, I'm curious to hear about what kind and how many wheels the rest of you have.
*I think she's doing some store cleaning and this stuff has sat around for a while and this was a good way to see it on it's way. But it was still an amazing thing to receive and I'm definitely feeling a little gobsmacked by this.
