It's a sickness

Wheel 9. Yes it happened again. The Ashford Elizabeth is on its way to a new home and a new spinner. I hope she finds a forever home. I sat there spinning her for the last time and was thinking - maybe I shouldn't. After a little while the leg ache started up again and yeah. New home. Nothing against the Ashford Elizabeth, it's a mixture of my joints and angles.

So I sit down after selling Lizzy and go to all the sites I had her up for sale to take down the ads. So as part of my normal habit I do a quick search on gumtree and something caught my eye. It was a bad ad with just the Ashford logo and the word spinning wheel. So I check, low and behold it is a double drive traveller, albeit single treadle for...... $60. It also included 4 double drive bobbins (the exact bobbins my main wheel uses) and at $15 ish per bobbin so SOLD. A quick message to the owner and a few anxious minutes wait and I spent my Australia Day driving through our beautiful country about an hour away. I wish I could have taken photos of the area (but driving and all dangerous even without the double demerits for the holidays). Beautiful forests and the mountains were almost gone in some areas because of the massive rain clouds. Think scenes from Fern Gully.

Close enough!

Old and dusty, but still in good condition and spins

So Introductions!

Traveller 2! (Name to be decided as I have no idea about names for any of them)
Ashford Traveller, now this one is older than my current one and I have noticed some differences. The Ashford logo has changed from a close up of the drive wheel to a picture of wheel. I also noticed a very slight difference in the spokes on the wheels. One section has one groove in the newer version and 2 in the older ones. The other difference that isn't visual is the whorl screws onto the flyer vs the one twist version they have now (I actually kind alike the screw version because I kept dropping the whorl when changing bobbins). Right now I don't know the ages of the wheels as Ashford only does a timeline of Traditionals. I would say this new acquisition is circa 1985 and my newer one...90's something era.

Comparisons of Wheels. 

Old wheel spokes

Newer wheel spokes

Old logo on maiden

Newer Logo

But anonymous spinning blogger you already have too many wheels (pish tosh no such thing), you don't have enough feet or hands for these wheels (fair call), you already have the same type of wheel that doesn't need major parts (true), you don't even like single treadle, you just sold one for that reason so why?!

WELL....I like wheels, but it is more than that. My newer wheel was bought by my sister and is in lovely condition. One of my previous wheels I originally got with the aim of decorating it. For reasons back then (I forget why). I also have been meaning to learn how to stain a wheel and really disassemble and learn about wheels, wood, and wood burn decoration on it. One day I would love to make my newer wheel a darker stain, but too frightened to touch. So the $60 wheel allows me to do what I need on a wheel that takes up a smaller space. I can also eventually put a double treadle on this if so inclined. So this wheel is not so much bought initially for its spinning wheel capacity, but as a project wheel.

So the next step for this wheel after a brief clean I will disassemble and clean up all the big metal bits and prep the wood (sanding I am thinking - see I am learning!) I will even keep an eye out for maybe a second hand double treadle in a terrible state that I can steal the double treadle off.

Have a great day spinning!

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Decorated Wheels

As Majacraft can customise designs on their wheels it is something I am exploring for my new wheel. I have been curious about decorating my own wheels and had one wheel ready before I decided to sell. My Peggy being lovely and authentic will be kept as if with just upkeep. When I gain the courage I would love to re-stain my traveller a darker stain. My Suzie however seems ripe for the decorating by my hand! I am also keeping my eye out for super cheap wheels I can revive and decorate. I almost bought a secondhand Merlin Hitchiker with celtic designs, but decided against it and to put the money to the Aura. I have seen some lovely Hitchhicker wheels decorated in my searches so maybe after I graduate I will do a full project wheel and decorate from start to finish. So while I am mulling over designs here are some beautifully decorated wheels.  

Ashford Wheels

Traditional with very cute designs that follow onto the lazy kate

This is the sort of colourI would like on my Traveller, though I am not quite sure this is a traveller or just an older version with a very similar design

The Thistle on the Joy, very well designed and balanced art

Merlin Tree - Roadbug's

Dragons, with lovely darker wood

I love the balance in this wood burn

Maybe a doctor who theme - Tardis blue?

Lovely use of an already circular device, my dad would love this sea inspired design

I always think this wheel is ready to jump into the race to sit on the Iron Throne!

Wow...is there any better way to describe it?

The Merlin Tree - Hitchhikers 

I love the overall theme on this on

This one is along my aesthetic - the country cottage look with older looking wood

Less my aesthetic, but I love the sheep theme and the matching bobbins

Subtle look that keeps the beauty of the wood

Nicely done wood burning with lovely contrast in the wood colour 

Another cute pained sheep design.

Majacraft Wheels

This Suzie gives me inspiration for mine and I love the green. 

Maybe a Little Gem, but it makes a big impression!

Unknown Makes - Or me being Lazy

Lovely use of pastel and the little bird on top!

Lovely open wheel to add such a pretty design, almost reminds me of Chinese silk material with gold designs. 

Not my style, but well executed design and the gold in the maidens and spokes!

Uncluttered design, but very detailed work.

P.S. If anyone does not wish their wheels to be up or would like links posted please let me know. I just love the work of these wheels and no copyright intended I just wanted to share. Majority were on pinterest and other photo sites which makes sourcing the original work difficult. 

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The Dream List

Golding - Triple flyer - Taking Flight II

What triggered this post is I have been drooling after a particular wheel (those who have read previously can already guess) to the point I would watch videos on it and I think I have read every blog post about it. Strangely I have never tried it, so it is not like my traveller when I tried it beside the ashford kiwi and knew it was the best choice for me. It's interesting how my list changes with new discoveries. So this will be a sort of series every now and again to see how and why certain items pop on my list. This is also a practical list, so while I would love a Golding's Spinning wheel some cost more than my car!

Customised Aura for Woolwench.com

*BOUGHT*
So very soon (once I put in my research proposal this coming week) I am going to put an order in for a Majacraft Aura, hopefully with some customisation on it.

So why the Aura? I am not sure what got me into Majacraft (like how I don't know how I got into spinning), I must have seen one on a blog or facebook group. I love the style of it and after watching videos on its innovative tension system. I understand people either love it or hate the tension system. I did look out for places that have one to demo but unfortunately it was not meant to be. So I will be buying one untested, but I feel that seeing that I already own and like a Majacraft wheel that the chances are slim I'll dislike it. As for the tension system, I am so new to spinning I think I could easily switch between systems and learn to love one easier than someone who has spent years with a particular system.

So this wheel will be my present to me after all the stress and anxiety of this research proposal and also hopefully be a congratulations on passing the first hurdle in my candidature. These wheels take awhile to come as they are from NZ and also hand made, especially if I get one customised. So by the time I hear feedback on whether I can go forward on my research. I am very stressed about this. While I believe my supervisors wouldn't put it in if they thought I would fail one supervisor makes me doubt myself so very much. So present!


So what else is on my list (with less words!)
Majacraft Fusion Engine Drum Carder 
I already have an Inwood drum carder that works fine, but what I appreciate about this is:
- Interchangeable Drums (so you can use the same carder with different tpi cloths)
- Drums are designed to fibre doesn't catch in the sides (demo video)
- Handle folds in
- Additional injection tray for artbatts
- Gears over band or chain to drive the drums

I already have nice wool combs and while I would like a newer blending board and carders (any brand really I haven't found one type that is above and beyond any other brand) the only thing on my "need" list is cotton carders.

LOOMS!

I haven't talked about much beside spinning as of yet really. I do have an ashford rigid heddle, but now I have seen more I would prefer either the Majacraft dynamic heddle loom or Kromski Harp. Why do I prefer them? They both have the ability to fold up (like the Ashford Knitters loom), but both also have a warping board on the bottom which is invaluable for other looms as well and one less piece of equipment. Both also have stands, what I would need to figure is which sizes I would prefer, prices of extra equipment like heddles and the variety of size and adding a second heddle.


Floor loom wise I am enamoured by Saori looms, but they are limited in the number of shafts they have. However a floor loom would require my own house to put it in. So a floor loom will be put in the "wishful thinking" category unless I got my hands on a baby wolf 8 shaft.

Now just have to win a couple of million for all of this and a place to put all these items in. However a person can dream!

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Fiber Shops

My Favourite online shop for buying Fibre to spin is Ixchel . This Fibre creator in Victoria, Australia has yarn and fibre clubs and weekly (Friday) sales rather than a general online store. Guess what today is! Go here around 8pm AEDT to see what is available. Last week was a sign up for the rare breed sheep the Soay.

I'm so cute and have mastered camouflage!

Ixchel or Charly breeds a lot of animals for fluff on their natural farm as well as sourcing many unique fibres for exciting blends. these batts and tops have been my introduction to unique fibres when I got my first batt with Qiviut (muskox) and its insane softness. So far I have done what I did with my wheels and amassed and embarrassing amount of fibres. Next Year I have signed up for a batt club which means for 3 months I get 1 batt with some unusual mix (I hope I get some wolf!).

My first buy with sample

Spun and ready to ply Tundra - Qiviut, Cashmere, Silk, Tencel, Merino and Angora. 

Some more (not all as some didn't like their picture taken).

There is a large mixture including yak, bison, angora, and even some weird and wonderful wallaby and stainless steel! Some of the batts and tops are so luxurious you just want to cuddle them all day long.

I can not wait till the batt club starts up and I really need to getting spinning faster. However for the moment I am planning what fun art spinning I could do and planning what I want to make out of them. Knowing me I could easily just make fancy yarn to display, but I really should be practical and make things.

Still waiting on some fibres from the states which has my yak mix, stainless steel, butterfly silk (mixes of silk) and my pearl infused rose fiber! I am also collecting fiber to get ready for my spinning certificate of excellence and other spinning certs which I'll talk about soon enough!

My wall of growing shame! 2 columns of yarn and fiber on the left and top. Everything in this photo is craft related!

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Wheel 8 - I have Issues

This is a very recent purchase and one I have agonised over. I noticed this wheel quite a distance away, but knew for the asking price what I was getting could be quite a steal and something I could clean up and sell on. The Ashford Elizabeth 2 is the most current saxony type wheel and is considered the high quality wheel over the entry level Traditional. What also came with this wheel is the Elizabeth horizontal Lazy Kate, an Ashford Drum carder, spinning chair and some wool. So once I agreed on a price I was happy with my spinning friend and I went on an Adventure.

A lovely 2hr drive up the New South Wales coast line and a brief stop for maccas pancakes and we were there. We came back with an entire car load of stuff!

First the wheel (picture taken after I waxed and prettied it up)

Ashford Elizabeth

As you can see she is a lovely dark wood well balanced. Near perfect condition except a small chip on the flyers whorl. That is purely aesthetic though. It also came with the associated horizontal lazy kate. While there are pretty and probably better for plying (as both bobbins are the same height) I really hate having to balance all on one rod. Also 4 lovely double drive bobbins.

Lazy Kate

The other big part was the drum carder. After much research I found out it was an older Ashford Mini Carder. It was missing a drive belt, but easy fix. So that got cleaned up and I got to learn how to install the band (which required sizing and melting the end of the plastic band and joining. Burn-y fun! This has already been sold on as I have a bigger drum carder already.






Not pictured are the heaps of extras also received. There was a nice spinning chair (this got gifted to my friend who helped organise buying this wheel and came along for the drive). There was also a metal swift and ball winder which I also gave to her as I had the exact same skiener and just bought an electric ball winder on sale. What I kept was the still in its pack ashford niddy noddy (mine is old) which I will try and stain or decorate something interesting. Plus a huge amount of processed and un processed wool. I have two overflowing huge black bin bags in my car of unprocessed fleece. I also have some mohair and other assorted stuff to play with.

While I like collecting wheels I have to also like them. My rule is I wont buy I wheel unless the price is at a level I could re-sell if I don't like it. Plus the new owner generally gets a serviced and polished wheel. So I gave this girl a try and single treadles just aren't my friend. Probably because of my bad hips. Compared to the traditional this has a much better spin and a little more weight behind the wheel. The size is fairly comparable as this isn't the bigger 30' anniversary wheel. It also have a much more refined look, even the little gold plaque with the brand on it just brings it up the next level. It is not as heavy to treadle as my Celtic was so more ability to control it. A beginner could use it, but I do consider it a bit more of a semi-intermediate (have the ability to do basic spinning without constant breaks over super thick). Due to it being a bit more expensive it generally wouldn't be picked up by beginners much anyway. It also is just beautiful! I just can't have a functional wheel sitting there without love as much as I want to collect. When I have my own house these types of wheels that looks great but might nit be the best spinners will be everywhere!

So this lovely is up for sale. So a brief stay in my home for this wheel. However it's sale might be used for the next wheel ;)

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Happy Distaff Day!

Yes it is a thing, and it actually comes with an interesting history and has me on the look out for one!

First off, what is a distaff?!
It is basically a spinning tool to hold up-spun fibre.

Distaff day or St Distaff day (unofficial Catholic Holiday) is on the 7th of January or the 12th day from Xmas. This was the day in many European cultures that women resumed their household chores, with a main one being SPINNING!

Spinning was a major task with women of all classes spinning. This task was usually done in the evening as this was a task that could be done in a relaxing way while having conversation with other women. During the middle ages the woollen industry because a major industry and around this time was when spinning wheels started to appear. This introduction of a spinning wheel over a spindle increased the production of of spun wool.

This is not only a day for women, but men as well. Men were still waiting for the first Monday after xmas (Plough Monday) so still had time for mischief.

Queen Elizabeth spinning with a distaff

Partly work and partly play

You must on St. Distaffs Day: 

From the plough soon free your team;

Then cane home and fother them: 

If the maids a-spinning go, 

Burn the flax and fire the tow.

Bring in pails of water then, 

Let the maids bewash the men.

Give St. Distaff' all the right: 

Then bid Christmas sport good night, 

And next morrow every one

To his own vocation.'

Robert Herrick in the 17th century

Different types of distaff

Distaff on wheel

Spinning holds a great importance for women in the past and it even has entered our language. Spinsters was a legal term for unmarried woman. The 'distaff side' was used for female lineage with male lineage being the staff e.g. "The crown of France never falls to the distaff" meaning the crown will always go through male lineage.

Wrist distaff

There are a lot of different distaffs, some seem to be just stick balanced in the arm wrapped in wool/flax, while some are very intricate or attached to the wheel or wrist.

If you are good with wood you can make a decent distaff, but if like me you will probably just end up with a bent stick if you tried you can make your own wrist one quickly!

This will be my project this Distaff Day, but I am missing some heavy beads. So will have to pick some up tomorrow or the weekend to finish it!

More history on spinning to come as the history is extremely fascinating and diverse across countries - Think Gandhi in India



In the mean time check out some cool distaff videos!
Dressing a Distaff


HAPPY DISTAFF DAY SPINNERS!

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Wheel....7...

Yes this is where one starts to admit they have a problem. I claim they are antiques as well as functional. This is still under 6 months since I started spinning by this stage I had bought 6 wheels and sold 3. So at this stage I was down to 3 wheels (Traveller, Wee Peggy and E-Spinner). I thought I was fairly done. During this stage I had been doing lots of drooling over "future wheels". Future wheels are wheels that are expensive and are so well loved they rarely become available second-hand. During this time I had become enamoured with the NZ Majacraft wheels, especially the Aura.

Drool!!

However this is about $1400-$1500 *cries*. So I had set a Majacraft Aura as a graduation present. So one day I was trolling facebook when I should be studying early December and guess what I found.......

Not an Aura, but a Majacraft Suzie. Knowing how quickly these things sell I jumped on it. I knew that if I didn't like it I could sell it on at the same price easily (and the comments after me asking to be next in line demonstrated that). So wheel 7 arrived packed to the brim with extra fibre (just some bobbins that missed the post and are coming soon.

The majacraft suzie is lovely to use and has some features I like. It is

Older Style Suzie

double treadle (which I love), but is scotch tension. Scotch tension is a bit better for finer spinning so I am going to set this wheel for fine spinning and my traveller as bulky spinning with its jumbo flyer. It has more variation in ratios with different ratios on the whorl and wheel. It is is portable and can be folded up with an on board Lazy Kate. The bobbins are boilable plastic with holes over the more common wood ones, which means they can be wet on the bobbin. I recently saw a Majacraft spindle attachment which will be on its way soon.


The Aura is still on my list for an ultimate wheel (and that includes American wheels I have checked, but until that time I am enjoying my introduction to Majacraft wheels on a wheel that many love as well. Who knows when I get the Aura what I do with this one, but she will be around for awhile yet. 

Look at all that Fibre, there is even a cat on the right to understand how much there is! Most Optim Merino

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Wheel 6 - New technology

Inwood-Smith E-Spinner

Wheel six I also believe as a "need". Due to health issues that caused me to have the brain surgeries I do spend a lot of time in bed. Strangely though traditional wheels do need me to be upright, so an e-spinner or electric spinner was on the cards. As with all my wheels this was a second-hand buy, though I almost put one on on lay-buy! This time the wheel was on a spinning shops website. After a few calls and emails I decided to buy sight-unseen and got it delivered to my house along with a board carder for my equipment. However I had to wait because it wasn't sold with the plugs. Once they came from the manufacture (Australian bran Inwood) I was sitting in bed spinning away!

While I really like this spinner if I had the money I would replace it as I don't like how the flyer is screwed on as sometimes if I hold too tight it unscrews the flyer, which falls off and annoys. It doesn't happen much, but enough that I would consider a different one if money were no issue. This spinner does have the ability to put a lazy kate one by putting two rods on. One day I will get some, but no rush.

This spinner has a foot control (which I use in my hand) to turn the machine on and off quickly. Down the sides it has speed control and direction so you can ply. The drive type is scotch tension and the flyer has a nice with an extra attachment for art yarns (I don't like it) and squeeze and slide hooks.

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