Spinning in the vortex
Well, thanks to the local fiber pusher Ba, I repaired the wheel last night! Curses on Thank you Ba!!! Ba suggested using a piece of leather, and that's what I did.
It works perfectly (or at least as far as I know it does!), and somehow satisfies my notions of the right material to use on a spinning wheel (rather than nylon, I mean). Plus, I already had leather scraps.
Then I tried to spin. Heh. After a few fruitless attempts, I watched a couple of videos of people spinning on youtube and realized I had the wheel set up wrong. Oops. So I tried again. Success! The Toymaker said he was glad that I had gotten the hang of it before 2:00 am. Okay, so I might be a little obsessive. But in a good way. ;) And I did go to bed happy. :)
So to all of you spinners out there, is the tension set up correctly here? ETA: Thank you all so much for the calls, emails and comments! I've got it set up now without the Scotch tension doohicky (highly technical term) and it is spinning like buttah!
Is there a way to change bobbins without unscrewing the end of whatever that piece (at the top of the next picture) is called on the whorl assembly and taking everything apart? ETA: I've been assured it gets easier as you get more used to it!
And how do I keep the wheel from walking away from me? Put it against a sandbag? Or is it operator error and it shouldn't be walking? ETA: Thanks to you all, the wheel is oiled, the tension is corrected, the screws are tightened and it is on carpet. It's not walking any longer!
I'm having a tough time keeping my hands off, dang it! And I have work to do!
I keep just doing ten more minutes. This has been going on for an hour now. :whimper:
It works perfectly (or at least as far as I know it does!), and somehow satisfies my notions of the right material to use on a spinning wheel (rather than nylon, I mean). Plus, I already had leather scraps.
Then I tried to spin. Heh. After a few fruitless attempts, I watched a couple of videos of people spinning on youtube and realized I had the wheel set up wrong. Oops. So I tried again. Success! The Toymaker said he was glad that I had gotten the hang of it before 2:00 am. Okay, so I might be a little obsessive. But in a good way. ;) And I did go to bed happy. :)
So to all of you spinners out there, is the tension set up correctly here? ETA: Thank you all so much for the calls, emails and comments! I've got it set up now without the Scotch tension doohicky (highly technical term) and it is spinning like buttah!
Is there a way to change bobbins without unscrewing the end of whatever that piece (at the top of the next picture) is called on the whorl assembly and taking everything apart? ETA: I've been assured it gets easier as you get more used to it!
And how do I keep the wheel from walking away from me? Put it against a sandbag? Or is it operator error and it shouldn't be walking? ETA: Thanks to you all, the wheel is oiled, the tension is corrected, the screws are tightened and it is on carpet. It's not walking any longer!
I'm having a tough time keeping my hands off, dang it! And I have work to do!
I keep just doing ten more minutes. This has been going on for an hour now. :whimper:
Labels: spinning
posted by Romi at 10:03 AM
13 Comments:
You're spinning looks very even.....Beautiful!!
Remember to relax and breathe...
You'll be soon wondering why you didn't try this sooner.....
Bwahahahahhaahh!!
Ba
It's looking a little strange.... If you have that little springy fishing line thing, I don't think your drive band needs to go around your bobbin.... the Ashford I have is a scotch tension wheel, which means it has that little springy fishing line thing as the bobbin brake. The drive band shouldn't go around the bobbin, and the fishing line brake goes around a groove in the bobbin, which you can see in my photo here http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimsical/452893961/in/set-72157594400991238/
I think you've got bobbins that aren't for the right wheel.
If you're running the wheel as a double drive, you don't need to use the brake band (the little piece attached to the spring) You only need that if you're using scotch tension. There is no way to change bobbins without removing the whorl, but you'll get used to it. Or, just wind the single into a ball and ply from both ends of that. Can't really help you with the wheel walking problem. None of mine have ever done that. Maybe a piece of carpet beneath it would do the trick?
Congratulations! It was only a matter of time. ;)
Is it possible to get a bigger picture? I can't tell where that brake band is going. I should be home tonight if you want me to help over the phone. Shoot me an email if you want.
A bathroom rug with a sticky back should keep the wheel from walking.
This is to answer Miriam's query:
The flyer/bobbins on a doube drive (DD) Ashford is/are different than a single drive (SD) Ashford. Rosemary's wheel is a DD. Her picture shows that she has it set up as a DD, but she has the scotch tension brake set up also (and it's on the flyer, not the bobbin). So, Rosemary, don't worry, you have the correct bobbins..
Miriam, if you look at the Ashford site-http://www.ashford.co.nz/spinning/spinning-frameset.htm- you can see the difference between DD and SD Traddies.
Hope this helps...
Ba
p.s. One can use a DD bobbins on SD, but I'm not sure one can use a SD bobbin on a DD. I'm sure the ratios will be different....
Yeah, what Vicki and Kerry said! You fought this for a long time, probably because you figured out that it would take you away somewhere. Just consider it therapy after a long afternoon of hammering sh*t. :o) Purrrrrrrrrr.
Well, that yarn looks about ten thousand times better than the first stuff I spun. Or the last, come to think of it! :)
Your spun singles look very nice to me. I like the color. Whenever I sit down to spin, I only stop, when my hand cramps up. :o)
Heeeee!
Your spinning looks beautiful.
Beautiful spinning of a beautiful fiber. Love the colors there. The next stage is when you want to ditch all your commercial yarns because they're just not good enough anymore, and then you come back to them awhile later and think, eh, it's okay to knit those too.
But there's nothing in the world like giving someone something you handspun, handdyed, and handknit. Nothing.
And she's officially been sucked into the black hole of spinning.
The fiber looks beautiful though.
Tiny Tyrant is so right, I can hear the suction as you're sucked into the vortex that is the blackhole of spinning. You have been assimilated.
BTW, the singles you have on the wheel look gorgeous! You're a natural!
wow, but for supposedly not knowing what you're doing, that singles looks really awesome!
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