I had my first house warming party and first spinning party at my house the other day with my Stitch and Bitch girls. I had so much fun learning to spin on my ghetto wheel. Honestly, that’s an endearing term. But in a room with so many beautiful wheels and such great spinners, mine certainly stood out.
Look at the pic below and see if you can pick my wheel out of the bunch!
We, I mean Schelli and her husband, first had to rig it with a McGuyver fix as I am missing a washer and bolt for the back treadle. The perfect fix was using a metal piece of a black mini clip. Then Suzanna and Schelli gave me sewing machine oil to grease up the metal parts. Even so it still has a cute ribbit sound as I treadle. Schelli gave me some of her roving which I think is just plain white wool from The Recycled Lamb. Schelli then set me up for spinning, and taught some neat tricks. I think I started out really good, and it only went downhill from there. I kept getting really tight corkscrews on parts and other parts were barely spun and more like roving strands.
Suzanna was already a pro as she had been to classes before. She was spinning some coarse wool for a rugged hat she wanted to make. I forget what she called it. I think it is Navajo wool for weaving, but maybe I am remembering it wrong. She came plopped down her wheel and went to town.
Now Lindsey on the other hand. . . She has the most gorgeous Ashford Traditional wheel and she barley touched it! I wish I had given it a test drive as I was beginning to think mine was messed up. So Lindsey and Rayanne were our couch cheerleaders and beer runners. Which truly is brave to go make a liquor store run after 10pm in this neighborhood. But they had fun and said they loved it!
Stacy even got in on the fun despite her allergies. She practiced some drop spindling. She said she has always wanted to learn the process and loved knowing how stuff gets made. I can totally relate to that! And Tam, always proficient in yarn spun away on her wheel. This woman makes anything look easy, even when its not. Schelli has the most beautiful wheel. It’s a Kromski. I loved it because it looks so traditional and even has leather parts to hold in the spool spoke. I think that is why Schelli said she loved it too. It is traditional and built the old school way which you know means it is well constructed and will out last her and the next generation. Also it comes with so many gizzmos. Some you buy separate from the wheel, but most was attached right to it’s compact frame. For example, it has a spindle (distaff) on top which can also be used to spool the yarn. It has both double and single wheel drive. It’s just a one stop shop for spinning anything you want. And it just looks gorgeous!

Okay, so I was saying things were going worse for me as the night went on. I didn’t know what I was doing wrong. So in the morning, I downloaded the Ashford Traveler instructions which go through step by step on putting all the parts together. There is also a section that tells you typical tips or the typical whats going wrong. I made a few tweaks to get it back aligned, mainly my spool and flyer weren’t straight which made it difficult to treadle, and I really didn’t understand how the tensioning worked. Anyway, a few tweaks later and I was back in business! Ghetto Wheel pulled through! I know with practice I will get better and more consistent. And I’m excited to get a few spools done so I can practice the Navajo plying that Schelli taught us. We plan on doing this once a month or so. I find it so relaxing to spin. Sometimes, if I have nothing I really want to knit or crochet on, it’s daunting to start a new project. So spinning will be a great in between projects fiber art for me. I just love it!

And Thank you SnB girls, now my Sit-n-Spin friends for making my first house party a success! I had so much fun and we will definitely be doing it again soon!