Thy spinning wheel hath arrived!
Friday morn brought the arrival of my spinning wheel, who is yet to be named. (The boyfriend suggests "Hilda.") I set to work putting her together immediately.
I quickly broke the threading hook, as I thought it was the pin you place in the wheel and crankshaft; the pin they sent with the wheel was far too big, so I had to replace it (with something much more appropriate, in my opinion). One of the screws on the flexible leather joint was too short, so I had to replace that. I oiled the snot out of it all. It was still hard to treadle. And by "hard," I mean HARD. I had to use both feet and all of the potential energy of my many muscles.
Yesterday morning, after two half-bobbins full of singles, I realized that the flyer was out of alignment with the wheel. I pushed the treadle. It was easy as pie.
I've also figured out how to fix a broken single without much swearing, amongst other little things.
Now I just have to figure out how to get the yarn to wind evenly onto the bobbin, as well as how to get some major twist into fibers. When you pre-draft, how in the world do you end up with a drafting triangle that has a decent angle to it?
The two pictures below are the yarn resultant of my toils. I used the wool included with my wheel; it's very pretty and kind of soft and was a perfect beginning-to-spin fiber. And I have, like, almost a pound left.
Some parts actually look like yarn, and considering that 75% of this was done while the wheel was immensely difficult to use, this isn't half bad. I really want more twist, though.
I started on some multi-color roving last night, and that's spinning up beautifully.
Knitting has not been forgotten!
I've been plugging away on the Moorish Patterned Pullover. I have four reasons to get it done as quickly as possible:
1) The yarn shop ladies want to see my finished product, as they loved the colors I picked.
2) If I have any leftover full skeins, I want to be able to return them.
3) Mon amie Laura wishes to make one (after seeing that mine turns out okay), and she needs to have it by winter or else she'll freeze.
4) If I lose momentum, I'll never get it back.
I'm a bit worried about the body and sleeve length. The pattern states that all sizes are knit to the same length, which I don't think is a good idea. I lengthened the body about 2 inches and the sleeves about 3; I hope that does the trick without going over.
Tipper @ 8:48 AM * link
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