She's here!
My goodness what a happy day!
My Forrester Orchard came. I am definitely a convert to this spindle. It's around 1 1/4 oz (35g) and it spins forever! I want to say what wonderful service I got from Gemini Fibres. I ordered it yesterday and it arrived today - it doesn't get better than that!
Then my Babe spinning wheel finally made an appearance.
It was very easy to put together (total about 20 minutes - it took me longer to decide which one to order!). I tried spinning a bit, but to tell you the truth, I'm exhausted. Tomorrow I'll give her a real go. It's a good thing they labeled the pedals left and right - I assembled them backwards without realizing!
I think I need to do some research. My yarn wasn't spinning enough, and breaking before it went into the orifice. I can't remember - does that mean the brake is too tight or too loose? The Babe doesn't use scotch tension, so according to the instructions you don't even need the break on. Much more experimentation is needed I think!
The credit and debit cards are now officially locked up until the spring!
My Forrester Orchard came. I am definitely a convert to this spindle. It's around 1 1/4 oz (35g) and it spins forever! I want to say what wonderful service I got from Gemini Fibres. I ordered it yesterday and it arrived today - it doesn't get better than that!
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| From Spin |
Then my Babe spinning wheel finally made an appearance.
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| From Spin |
I think I need to do some research. My yarn wasn't spinning enough, and breaking before it went into the orifice. I can't remember - does that mean the brake is too tight or too loose? The Babe doesn't use scotch tension, so according to the instructions you don't even need the break on. Much more experimentation is needed I think!
The credit and debit cards are now officially locked up until the spring!
Congratulations!!! I was wondering when the wheel was finally going to arrive. I give you a few hours learning curve on the wheel and then it will be just a matter of practice. Treadle SLOWLY!! It's the best advice I can give you. Since you don't have scotch tention I am not sure how to adjust how quickly the yarn gets sucked into the orifice. I have the tension on the Joy that controls that. From the little I know as a newbie, the amount of twist in the yarn is controlled by the ratios on the wheel and that's the band that goes from the flywheel to the flyer. Email if you think I can help.
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From what I understand, the Babe is bobbin-driven, like my Louet. I had this problem when I first got the Louet because I had the brake on too tight. Just take the brake off at first and see if that helps.
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Congrats on the new toys!! You are going to have so much fun!
The other commentors left good advice - another thing you can do besides taking the brake band off is to lace the leader yarn back and forth on a couple of the hooks and then thread it through the orifice. Make sure it is securely on the bobbin (you can even tape it on) so that the leader isn't just slipping around the bobbin and not pulling in the yarn at all.
And another piece of advice I always give new wheel spinners is maybe just take some commercial yarn, or some singles that you have spun on the spindle, and ply them on the wheel to start with. This gives you a better feel for how your wheel is taking up, and such without having to worry about your handspun singles breaking on you...
One other real quick thing. I'm viewing your blog in Firefox and the main blog entries are all the waaaay over to the right - your sidebar is taking up an awful lot of space on the left, Just thought I'd mention it, cuz IMHO - it's better to have the actual blog take up all the space, and the sidebar is there for all your linkys and such - other than that - your template is really really nice!
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Hah! Just discovered the webring and your site. I am a new spinner in Toronto(long time knitter)and just finished knitting my first spun and dyed project, a toque for my DH. How Canadian is that, LOL. I bought an Ashford Kiwi wheel, although I did consider the Babe, and find it pretty easy to use, although I of course went through the lumpy wool learning curve. Probably helped that I learned first on a drop spindle I am currently lusting after the Forrester orchard spindle also, as well as the North/Country road one, but will have to wait a bit after buying the wheel and the Midnight Sky spindle on this page -
http://www.dropspindle.info/designer_spindles.html
Are there any spinning groups in Toronto?
Tina
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