It has arrived!

Mom captured this on her phone. :)

My brand-spanking new spinning wheel finally arrived! Well actually it arrived over a week ago but I've had so much fun playing with it that I haven't had much time to blog. :)

I've spun so much I think I've now discovered calf muscles I wasn't previously aware of!

I know spinning isn't exactly a common hobby, (I can't tell you how many times I've started gabbing with a fellow 'spinner' only to realize they meant the exercise bike!) but you'd be surprised by the amount of fiber spinners in my area! I feel like I'm part of some secret, underground group of spinners! :D

I actually discovered spinning after visiting a guild meeting nearby with my crochet work. I was entranced as I watched the men and women around me turn bags of animal hair into beautiful handmade yarns. I had to learn to do it myself!

If you're not interested in spinning jargon/details on the wheel, scroll down to the photos of the yarn. :)

I began spinning using an Ashford drop spindle for a couple of reasons: to make sure I really enjoyed spinning, and because I worked at Taco Bell and a spinning wheel was way out of my budget.

But...now that I have a real honest-to-goodness job, I finally decided to purchase a real, honest-to-goodness spinning wheel! :D Oh yeah!

I did tons of research prior to making my purchase and I took every opportunity possible to use other people's wheels in order to decide what my 'must haves' were. Here is the list I used when shopping. The list actually started much shorter however I kept adding things in order to help narrow down my options.
- reasonably priced, but not a beginner's wheel, I wanted it to grow with me

Photo courtesy of The Woolery

- reputable brand
- portable, or a small footprint
- castle-type wheel
- double treadle
- center orifice
- double band drive w/ optional Scotch tension
- built-in Lazy Kate 
- finished wood

It wasn't easy but I finally narrowed it down to a Kromski Minstrel. This wheel met all my 'must haves' PLUS it was gorgeous AND it wasn't over-the-moon expensive.

The wheel came in a number of color options, but I really liked the lighter option; I think it's traditional-looking yet fresh.  The Kromski brand is also known for having exceptional quality wheels. All wheels are designed and produced by a small family business in Poland.

So far I have REALLY enjoyed using it, but I'm not going to lie, the first few days were not fun! Like I said, I didn't technically purchase a 'beginner wheel' although it is advertised as being 'beginner friendly.' There was certainly a bit of a learning curve involved. Nearly all of my initial trouble was because of tension issues. In the past, every time I sat down at a wheel, the person who actually owned it had already set the tension and was sitting right there assisting me. After watching numerous YouTube videos (specifically, Expertly Dyed, she has the same wheel as me), I realized that it was important that I adjust the tension SLIGHTLY each time. I was also making it placing WAY to much tension on the drive band and actually wound up snapping it before it was all said and done. {Legit spinners should look away now, you're about to cringe!} I didn't want to put a brand new drive-band on the wheel seeing as how I was still having major issues, so I grabbed a bit of cotton yarn, measured it out, threw it on, and haven't looked back! :D

Besides tension issues, I couldn't for the life of me get the wheel to take-up properly, resulting in severely over spun yarn. I wound up having to adjust about half-a-dozen things in order to fix it.  First, I was SUPER excited to get my wheel and didn't realize that I was treadling about a hundred miles an hour. (Seriously, I was out of breath after about ten minutes!) My focus for the next few days was seeing how slow I could go and still keep the wheel moving. After slowing my treadling I also readjusted my whorls. Because it's a double-band drive, the bobbin whorl almost always has to be smaller than the flyer whorl. I made sure that the flyer whorl was as large as possible, and the bobbin whorl was as small as possible. So far this has worked fine since then, although I have stepped the flyer whorl down a size as I've improved. Besides this, I realized after a while that I was so nervous I wasn't actually releasing the spun fiber so it could move onto the bobbin. Hehe, whoops!

Well, let's get down to business! Check out the yarn I've spun so far...

This was the first yarn I spun. It began as a beautiful hand painted wool fiber purchased from a local spinner and alpaca breeder. Check out her shop, Woodland Hills Alpacas on Etsy.

The beautiful shades of reds, oranges, and a hint of brown initially attracted me to the fiber, and I loved how it turned out! With one exception...it truly is horribly overspun! Its hard to tell on the paper towel tube I transferred it onto, however after I set the twist and released the tension it curled up left and right! lol

Btw, the paper towel tube is because I was waiting on my Niddy Noddy but need to free up a bobbin. :)

The next photo is of some beautiful Alpaca fiber given to me from a fellow spinner. She is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to fiber! I typically stay out of the cleaning/prep process when it comes to fiber and purchase mine ready-to-go, but she is awesome at cleaning an carding out batts! I also go to her for all my goat/sheep related questions. (Our sheep are hair sheep so their fiber is unsuitable for spinning.)

I have already spun this into singles and am working on a small knitting project with it. Hopefully, photos will follow soon.

 This is another batt of alpaca fiber, cleaned and gifted to me from the same wonderful lady. :) This is my current project. It's a kind of deep auburn color (sorry, I don't know the actual color names when it comes to alpacas) but it's spinning out a bit darker and is really beautiful color! One of the things I like about the batts she's given me is that there's little tufts of white fiber in there here and there. It's really beautiful and makes me think of the animal that so kindly donated their hair to us. Unfortunately, the fiber isn't coming out as smooth as possible, I would welcome any tips!

And finally, this is a two-ply I spun from some wool roving. I considered dying it but I kind of like the natural cream color...

Thanks for sticking with me til the end of this post!

~Farm Girl Teacher