Recent Acquisitions

I have had a little buying spree thanks to lots of luck.

This warping board I got off eBay. To buy this size upfront is $140AUD and even the smaller one is over $100. So I was very glad to get this one for under $70. The lady I got this one was lovely and we had a great chat and she also went to Petlins. So I got to send her regards when I went to spinning later that day. 

I also got this from the lady I got the warping board off. She was unloading a couple of her looms as well (which I bid heavily on until they were over my price range. She kept her rigid heddle and wheel and the space is now for her pottery. 

While at Petlins later that day we found they had reduced their boxes of Ashford samples and I managed to grab this one that has the silk Merino blend. I say grab because there were a few of us watching each other carefully. I feel like I should have grabbed one of the merino colours for blending. However, I had a big day of spending. I also picked up a lambs skin that I am going to cut into treadle covers like seen here.

With all the work I had been doing get yarns ready for the next show I had a lot of plying. With all that plying I realised I needed a tensioned lazy kate. I was sick of getting piggy tails. The little chicken was along for the ride!

I also got an order I had previously made. A friend and I were lamenting the loss of the Lace Flyer and its insanely high ratios for the Ashford Wheels. We found out the whorl for the Kiwi would give some quite high ratios so I grabbed on. I have yet to try it as my Traveller is being borrowed at the moment. I can't wait though since seeing how fun lace spinning can be!

While not purchased this week I got this in the mail from Ixchel, which is her Frida Adventure. They are the same fiber, I just wanted one un-dyed. These contain Navajo Churro, Angora, Cashmere and Agave Cactus Fibers. The cool sheep and cactus sold it for me and it is soft, which is nice seeing the Churro is not the finest micron sheep. I am now awaiting for her Viking blend!

I stopped in at the Guilds Market Day and checked out their shop as well.  I picked up some Ginned Cotton in preparation for the cotton section of my CCHS. I love the feel of cotton!

The Guild meeting also had some Sheep owners selling their lovely fibre. Kurrambee Coloureds. My only regret is I didn't buy more. These staples are so well separated and so easy to prepare. I have put some into one of my competition entries for the Hawkesbury Show. I love this natural grey colour. 

At the guild store they also had bags of alpaca for $2 a bag, so I grabbed 2! It is nice and soft and quite a nice colour. At the guild store they also had bags of alpaca for $2 a bag, so I grabbed 2! It is nice and soft and quite a nice colour. 

Finally, I picked up some handmade Lucets at the guild. A standard 2 prong and in the bag a 4 prong. While I have never used these cord making tools they were $1 and $2.50 each so I grabbed them!

Lincraft had a sale around easter so I picked up two of these Spaghetti Yarns (they are super heavy). While it is hard to tell it is a mauve colour. I think I will make a rug. 

I also saw these and thought they reminded me of the colour-way for Dr Who's. Now to find a pattern that also reflects Dr Who! They are also soft and light! 

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Lace Flyer

Majacraft Lace Flyer kit

So a few weeks back I finally got my lace flyer that will fit both of my Majacraft wheels. With much trepidation I finally attached the fast whorl onto my Aura and got spinning. So what are my thoughts?

I bought the full kit that includes: the flyer, a fast whorl and 2 lace bobbins. Each of these items can be purchased separately.

This kit (and all other equipment) took awhile to come as all items are handmade to order pretty much (some places keep basic stock). So if you are after one quickly you might be out of luck. At least, you know they are well made and properly balanced. I ordered mine from Ewe Give Me Knits. The transaction was fine though the process is not finalised at once. You put in the order and the owners gets back to you with a quote that includes shipping later vs having a standard shipping. The order is sent through to Majacraft who does everything from there. So packaging and shipping etc was done by Majacraft and they were well packaged and shipping prices were fairly standard.

The flyer is the newer version and slightly different from what is displayed on the sites. I had known about the possibility through Ravalary's Majacraft website. However, I think it might be time for them to update the website. The difference is that the older flyer had two hooks on the bar to allow for cross warping to help reduce the pull. The newer version only has one, and it is also more an orifice rather than a hook which requires an orifice hook to put things through. I think if I had the choice I would prefer the to open hooks at the front. I believe the change was based on minimising the weight and perfecting the balance. I hope they bring back the double hook. For now, I am crossing over the arms of the flyer.

The tiny blakc piece that when missing!

The whorl was something I was very keen to get on my wheel. While I love my Aura the original whorl is a tad limited in ratios which are 4.1-7.3. Adding this whorl gave me a range of 10-19.4. I checked out the largest whorl and it came to about 10 revolutions. I am quite interested in getting all the whorls to play with. I must admit, this is the one time I prefer Ashford for changing whorls. It isn't difficult per se, but wasn't the simple slight twist Ashford does. I think now I have done it once I will be a bit better and I don't anticipate multiple changes. As you can see by their video to change the whorl one must use the provided Allen key and insert it into the hole in the metal area. What I didn't know however was that there a tiny plastic screwy kind thing in there. I discovered it when I felt something drop on my foot. Thank god I found the insanely tiny little black piece. It took a little while for me to get it tight enough to get things sorted so I could get the Aura flyer off to change (you have to hold the whorl and give a slight twist).

So finally how does it spin?

LACE!!

While I know a good spinner can spin anything on any wheel at any setup I can really appreciate how the whorl, flyer and bobbin work together to make it effortless. I started spinning some of the thinnest spin ever on the superwash Merino I had going. For awhile I kept breaking because I was getting too thin, but by the end I was getting fairly good. I have one bobbin done and am setting up another bobbin to get ready for some plying.

I did find that getting my treadling started was a bit harder and I can't tell whether things is just me comparing my Suzie rather than an actual issue. Will have to keep an eye on it. Having these add-ons really does make the Aura able to spin a large range without difficulties. I will be interested in how it goes on the Suzie as the fast whorl give a range 9.5-18.8 compared to the standard 4.2-14.5 on the Suzie whorl.

I have done an entire bobbin and a half so far and still loving. I had this set up at spinning recently and sold my other Aura sister on this as she had been watching and we had a chat. It is lovely when the item speaks for themselves.

Now for pictures showing how tiny this set is compared to the big Aura ones!

Standard Aura whorl with lace whorl.

Aura vs Lace Flyer bobbins and flyer sizes 

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Woolee Winder + Initial thoughts

It is no surprise to anyone who has read my blog that I have had my eye on an item such as the Woolee Winder. However due to the atrocious exchange rate right now a simple flyer and 2x bobbins would cost at least $500. Seeing this is more than the costs of all but my Aura it was WAY outside of a price range I could rationalise. Since I had bought the Aura I had joined the Ravelry group for Majacraft and posted that I was after certain products including the Winder. Within a week, I got contacted and for half the price and with more bobbins the Winder arrived. 

Majacraft WW with delta orifice

It seems like the Aura there is a love-hate relationship, no middle ground with the Winder. The previous owner found it pulled too much for her fine work and it does seem these work better with certain wheels. While I don't think my opinion will change from my initial thoughts you never know.

The Woolee Winder!

So what is this flyer and why should we care? Compared to other flyers this one has a patented method that winds the yarn up and down as you spin instead of having to change hooks and allows a better/even filling of bobbins which allows for more yarn per bobbin. These flyers also needs the specially made bobbins with a gear on them. Some say, well I have no issue with changing the hooks and can keep it well filled etc. Yes if these issues are not a problem then you probably don't need it. I won't say it is a problem for me, I am just a collector ;)

The moving eyelet

The Woolee Winder is available for different wheel types and lovingly the maker pays attention to keeping the flyer and bobbins looking uniform. So my Majacraft flyer and bobbins look perfectly matched! They also have a jumbo size available (mine is standard). Different orifices are available on request.

Set up on the Suzie

So I chucked the flyer on and adjusted the tension on my Suzie and honestly didn't have ANY trouble with the pull after the first adjustment (which you do with any new yarn/flyer/empty bobbin anyway). I was using the batt that was given the flyer came wrapped in (so I have no idea what it was) and found I could spin super thin very easily. In fact, one thing I did find I really liked was while there was very limited pull while I was drafting, as soon as I went to feed it into the bobbin it had a much stronger pull. This I found great! Normally when I have low tension for thin spinning it can easily get overspun as the pull is not there. So this balance was great. The maker better explains this:

"Each bobbin has a little gear on the front that turns a small, lightweight gear train to the travel screw. When you are spinning and holding tension on the yarn, the bobbin and flyer rotate at the same speed. When tension is released from the yarn, the brake does its job slowing down one component while the other keeps moving at the same speed. (A bobbin lead slows the flyer, and a flyer lead slows the bobbin.) This difference in speed is what winds the yarn onto the bobbin and also causes the gear train to turn, turning the travel screw, and thus moving the eyelet down the flyer arm. When you reapply tension to the yarn, both the flyer and the bobbin return to the same speed and the gear train stops turning. The moving eyelet will then stay in the same position until the next time you let tension off the yarn, then the process repeats."

Extra washer to push the bobbin closer to flyer

So far so good! One minor thing I did find at first was the bobbin was a bit short on my Suzie and the cogs of the flyer and bobbin didn't quite meet up so didn't always move the winding part. However, my Suzie had a washer/cog that came with it I had taken off and stored safely (which I was actually able to find for once!). Once I put this on it allowed the cogs to interact and work its wonder. 

Aura bobbin with the holes to drive it and the WW bobbin.

The bobbins are a decent size, but smaller than my Aura bobbins and around the same size of the standard boilable bobbins you get from Majacraft. While you need these special bobbins to use the flyer properly and they cost $39-$45 for standard or jumbo. However, I believe one could easily find the same sized cog and attach them to their own bobbins. However depending on the exchange rate if you needed new bobbins in general (at least for Majacraft) the pricing may be negligible. Plus the bobbins are a bit thicker on the wooden ends so there might be a balance issue. As I have a few extra bobbins I want to try and see if I can add a cog to the boilable ones.

At the moment, I can only use the Winder on my Suzie. HOWEVER, this might just down to the bobbins. When you purchase you get asked whether you want the Aura style (which fits all) or the standard which fits everything but the Aura. Looking at all the different flyers for multiple wheels it does not appear any change in the mechanism. So my thoughts are simply drilling the two whole required for Aura bobbins and I can have the WW interchangeable between both my Majacraft wheels! So one bobbin will be sacrificed for that and a boilable bobbin will be sarcificed to glue a cog on. Lets see how it goes with plying next as I hear that is where it shines!

The two cogs together from the flyer and bobbin

WW set up on my Suzie 

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