Last weekend, I rented a spinning wheel from ReBelle. It was a single treadle Fricke, and I completely fell in love. I’ve been spinning on a spindle for just over a year now. I’m surprised I didn’t want to try a wheel sooner, but now that I have tried it, there’s no gong back for me. The wheel is so much faster, and after I got through my first pound or so of fiber, I was making yarn that I actually liked! I started with some undyed merino. That went pretty horribly, mostly because I wasn’t used to the wheel yet. It sucked, but I plied it anyway (and it still sucked then). I then spun some more of the same fiber, and it went much better. Feeling confidant, I moved on to something prettier- some hand dyed BFL from frabjous fibers. BFL is a bit easier to spin than merino, but I didn’t want to start with it because I didn’t want to mess up the gorgeous colors. Here’s what i ended up with:
Not bad for my first real wheel spun yarn! I know it has lots of room for improvement (it needs more twist in the ply) but i still LOVE it. Did I mention that it’s navajo plied? Yep, I tackled that beast early on, and I love the way it distributes the color- no barber poll here! Then, I moved back to some merino. This time it was dyed, in a gorgeous color called primrose. I wish I had included something for scale in this picture- these singles are about fingering weight, though it goes up to sport in a few places.
Can you believe how much improvement I got between those two? I was amazed. It was like all the sudden I remembered how to spin, instead of *learning* how to spin. I still have another 4 oz. of that to spin up, then I will ply it together. I can’t wait to see how much yardage it is!!!
So, this evening, I had to take the wheel back to the LYS. But, thanks to my mom, look at this lovely box that came home with me:
There’s a double treadle fricke in that box, waiting for me to assemble it. :D An awesome Christmas present, if I do say so myself! I’ll be assembling it tomorrow, and of course showing off pictures!
Edited to add: Spinners, would you comment with a few of your favorite places to get fiber?
