Wheel Sneak Preview

Okay, here's a small taste of things to come. I'm still pretty much staining, sanding, and re-finishing the wheel, but I did a test run with the kate & bobbin to ensure that I have the right color combination. I really wanted a green coppery color -- something that would have the sheen of metal, but still be a beautiful green. Originally, I was thinking "verdigris", but not as teal.

Here's the unfinished portion of the kate plus a singular bobbin.

 

Here are the color chips that I was considering. It was a toss-up between "botanical" and "verdigris".

I went with "botanical". And I also picked up a metallic "glaze" in gold.

Here's the finished bobbin. (I think I went a bit heavy with the gold glaze.)

And here's the finished kate

So far, so good. The rest of the wheel is still in progress.

Brief Thoughts on The Schact Sidekick: A Review

Ever since the Schact Sidekick was announced, I've been really looking forward to giving it a try. The Sidekick looked very nifty and the preliminary reviews were excellent. But, since I like to try wheels out first, I wasn't ready to pre-order it.

If it worked out for me, I had plans to sell my Ashford Joy for the Schact Sidekick. So, when my LYS finally got one into their store, I gave it a test drive.

My Initial Impressions:

* It's a very cute wheel, and looks to be well-engineered
* It is very small, and would travel very well.
* It treadles beautifully. However, being of a shorter stature, I do have to be in a slightly taller chair for it.

Then my wonderful spinning guru at my LYS showed me how to break it down, and this is where I started noticing problems. I'll be listing the advantages/disadvantages as I saw them.

Advantages:

* They use some nify handles to loosen a lot of parts (much like bikes).
* The Sidekick is very light to handle, albeit an awkward shape.
* Treadling is very smooth and very easy.
* Nearly everything has it's place.
* The orfice is of a good size, and you can probably do some art & bulky yarns with it.
* It's very well engineered (although I think it might be a little *too* over-engineered, see my notes below.)
* This wheel is tiny with a SMALL footprint. It'd fit nicely in a small apartment. You can probably take it on as carry on luggage on a plane (provided you don't carry anything else)
* It comes with two types of whorls (medium & fast). Also you can get an additional slow whorl (4.25:1/5.25:1) and the High speed whorl (12.5:1/15.25:1)

Disadvantages:

The following are some of the disadvantages that I found with the Sidekick. These are based on my personal preferences, and not something that is a "deteriment" to the wheel, but basically some things that might annoy me.

* It's not exactly easy to fold down the Sidekick. There are screws to be loosened, removed, then parts are rejiggered, then screwed into their proper places.

Unlike my Joy, where it's a push here, fold this, then zip into the bag and you're ready to go, the Sidekick takes a bit of doing. I'm sure that once you get used to breaking it down, it'll get faster. I'm just comparing it to the Joy where it was easy to fold up out of the box.)

* There's no place to put the flyer that would secure it well once it's folded down, nor is there a place to store extra bobbins.

* There's no handle by which to heft the Sidekick when it's folded, but there's plenty of real estate on the wheel to put something there. So, I don't know why Schact didn't do this one thing.

* There's no built-in kate (not a deal breaker for me, but something I noticed).

* The travel bobbins are PRICEY ($30.00 apiece). If you don't already have a Schact Matchless or Ladybug, you'll be investing in additional bobbins.

* I'm not sure how much I like their Scotch tension design that puts the spring on the wrong side of the nut, which causes it to lose a little bit of finer tension control as with other Scotch tension wheels. I really have to crank the nob to get a change in tension (unlike my Kiwi or Joy where a small twist to the spring provides additional tension)

Conclusions:

This is a very nice wheel that I would buy if I already didn't have the Joy. But this is a wheel that I would highly recommend people to consider IF:

* you're looking for a wheel that could serve as a home & travel wheel, I'd go for the Sidekick.

* you don't have a lot of space in my home/apartment, and needed something with a small foot print, I'd go for the Sidekick (although I think breaking it down repeatedly would be a hassle.)

* you're travelling and am going to be leaving your wheel set up for an extended period of time, I think this is an excellent wheel. If you need to constantly setup & fold up your wheel, this might get annoying, depending on your own personal preferences.

* you don't already own a travelling wheel.

I don't think I'll be selling my Joy for the Sidekick. I think the Joy is a little bit more "travel" friendly than the Sidekick; it's certainly easier to break down and I like the extra bobbin storage. Also their bag allows me to put fiber and other tools easily.

Spinning for Physical Therapy Purposes

After my foot injury, one of the owners of my LYS told me that I could use my spinning wheel as part of my physical therapy. Up until now, the foot hasn't been capable of doing much, and I had been spinning one-footed on my double treadle wheels. As much as I love my Ashford Kiwi, I love her even more now, because she spins very very easily even with one foot.

My Ashford Joy is a little harder to spin with one foot, due to the wheel as there is a definite "bottom" and top of the wheel which causes it to wobble ever-so-slightly when spinning with one foot when the heavy part comes around. This is not a problem, and I've learned to compensate for the slightly heavier part of the wheel.

I did attempt to spin on the Kiwi with two feet, but the angle & treadle size wasn't right and it hurt to use my foot on it. HOWEVER, the angle & size of the Joy works with my poor hurt foot. So, the other night, I put the hurt foot on its treadle and let it just "ride" while my good foot does all the work.

So, I spun for a while. I let my foot "ride" for about 5-10 minutes, then gave it a rest while my good foot continued spinning. Later, I'd let the foot "ride" again....repeat for a bit. It felt pretty good and got some blood flow into the leg. My foot also felt "looser" instead of being tight. But, just like any other workout, the next day my foot was slightly sore (but not a "bad" type of sore) and I noticed that I had a little bit more movement than I did before.

When I go see my physical therapist, I shall be sure to talk to her about spinning. Mayperhaps, I can start a trend where spinning is recommended as part of physical therapy for those who have ankle injuries. :-)

Spinning my Wheels

This past weekend was a spinning weekend. There was much needed cleaning to do, but DH insisted I not help (something about being on crutches was not helpful). So he marched me to my desk area.....where got to some serious spinning on the wheel. I had discovered (to my delight) that I could operate with one foot with only a minor bit of fiddling (as I have double treadles). So, I listened to podcasts and spun for a good chunk of the weekend.

I spun 3 ounces of Frank, then needed a little something different for a while. Digging around the Stash, I found a batt I had gotten a while ago. The colorway was "Cedar Waxwing", which I discovered is a type of bird (didn't know) that is black & gold color.

While spinning, the batt reminded me of everything from black opals to black hills gold.



3.25 oz batt. 60% merino/ 30% bamboo/10% firestar
Single: 4.5 TPI
Finished: 2ply / 166 yards / ~ 3.15 oz
18 WPI (sport / DK weight)

Just so that I wasn't completely unfaithful to Frank, I decided that I needed to spin a test swatch for Frank. So, I spun up a 3ply and a 4ply. My simply plyback tests had told me that a 3ply would work for the sweater I wanted to knit, but I wanted to make sure and there's no better way than to knit a swatch.

After plying, the samples got washed, thwacked, and dried (in the nice day sun), and afterwards were knitted into swatches.


3ply
(Before washing: sport/DK weight)
(After washing: Aran/light worsted)
Knitted Sample: 4.5 stitches/inch (18st/4 inches) on US6


4ply
(Before washing: light worseted)
(After washing: heavy worseted)
Knitted sample: 4 stitches/inch (16 stitches/4inches) on US 7/6

Both samples were very nice, although I much preferred the 3ply as the fabric because it matches the gauge for the sweater I want to knit and it has a much drapier hand. Whereas the 4ply was a bit thicker than I wanted, and could probably be made into a much thicker sweater or hat.

Polyamorous Relationships

In regards to my last entry about spinning Frank on Nona (my Ashford Kiwi), I haven't been completely honest.

I haven't exactly been monogamous with Frank & Nona this entire time but taking some time to spend with DH's Xmas gift, Joy.

and working through some lovely mixed BFL (1 pound).

However, I'm planning on Navajo plying these singles, so I'm not even bothering splitting them into 1 ounce quills. And I'm currently 5 ounces into the full pound.

This is a totally polyamorous relationship between myself, Nona, and Joy....not to mention Frank and the nameless mixed BFL. I'm trying to split my time evenly between all of them (which doesn't always work) but I do feel guilt twinges here and there.

I wish I had more time to spend with all of them.

Frankie Baby

Currently, I'm still spinning away on Frank. Per Jasmin's spinning lessons & suggestions, I'm only spinning an ounce of fiber and transferring them to quills before spinning another ounce.

This technique works well for me, as I can easily get through an ounce in one long sitting, or 2 spinning sessions if I only have a short amount of time. However, the downside to only spinning 1 ounce at a time is seeing the HUGE PILE that is left of Frank. I am not a production spinner by any means. (Currently, I only have 12 quills (12 ounces) of Frank spun up as singles. My half of Frank is 3.25 pounds.

Tangent Math Time!
16 ounces / lb = 52 ounces = 52 quills.
I still have 40 quills left to finish before I can really start plying. (OOFDA!)

The sheer number of what I have left to finish is daunting, to say the least, but currently, I'm looking at it one quill/ounce at a time. EVENTUALLY, I'll get through Frank. And then it's a matter of plying, THEN knitting. I hope to finish my Frankie Sweater by the end of the year. Ooof.

I know that if I just plow through Frank that I could be done within a shorter amount of time, but it's a matter of having that much dedicated time. Sometimes I fear that Frank feels neglected, although I know he is a very patient ram and doesn't mind at all. He just sits there and taunts me silently with his lovely chocolately brown goodness....whispering, "spin me....."

And he is ever-so-lovely to spin.

Christmas Gift...

I've been meaning to post this since the Christmas holidays, but I haven't had the time to take photos.

However, this is what DH gave to me for Christmas!

Lovely, isn't she?!?

Sick Spinning

Because I was sick with the flu these past two days, I didn't have the fortitude to do much except be a lump on the sofa/chair.

T.V and Internet surfing was out for long periods of time, because, well, everything on the monitor was much too bright and hurt my eyes. And a low level headache kept me from reading, well, because it hurt to read.

And I wasn't about to tackle the sewing machine in my mental state (which wasn't much). Knitting was out, because I didn't trust myself enough to be able to count well enough on the shawl I am currently knitting, nor did I think I had enough of a mental state to try and wrap my head around starting something new. And I couldn't really nap for periods of time because I'd wake myself up with a major coughing fit.

So, I sat at my wheel, and spun..and spun..and spun...and spun....while listening to various podcasts to keep my brain from turning into more mush. And I managed to finish up several skeins of yarn on the wheel, and get them washed, thwacked, and dried. (This is probably the most I've spun in any one given period of time, ever....)

So, here's what I did:

Merino
I finished plying up singles for a 3-ply Black Merino - Fingering Weight: 161 yards. This came out absolutely faboo. The yarn is nice, lofty, and has the springy-ness of Merino. This yarn is for a set of Fingerless gloves



And, I washed up it's matching white merino counterpart


Targhee
I finished spinning up the last ounce of Targhee that I started at the Winery. Then plied both of them for a 2-ply Fingering weight : 259 yards / 1.5oz total. This came out extremely well balanced, and I managed to maintain color consistency. (I'll review targhee in a later post)



Navajo-Plying
For a bit of a new experience, I navajo-plied some Coopsworth singles (2oz) that I had languishing on a bobbin. I had never done this technique before, and it was easy, once I got it actually started. Getting the first chain done was tricky. The resulting yarn is a bit over-active (it's one of my first yarns I created)

So from this:


to this



Low Twist Yarn
And, I spun up this lovely pin drafted roving (all 7oz) into low-twist sport/dk weight single: 250 yards. (I'll also talk about this later in a later post)

Spinning a Japanese Maple

So, a while ago, I received this fiber & spindle from Butterfly Girl Designs:


Japanese Maple - 70% merino, 20% bamboo, 10% nylon firestar

It reminded me of a Japanese Maple in the fall. Much like this:

(BTW, I love Japanese Maple Trees)

I used the pictured drop spindle to turn it into this:



And then, the poor fiber sat resting all this time, because I wasn't sure what to do with it! I wasn't 100% happy with how it turned out, because the colors (at least to me) seemed muddy, even though I loved the fiber colorway. I wanted more of the gold to pop.

However, I know that sometimes how the fiber looks prepared is a bit different from how it might spin up...or even how it might knit up. So, I wasn't ready to trash the project.

I debated plying it against itself or maybe spinning something to match or maybe a commercial yarn. In perusing through my stash, I remembered that I had this:


Jagger 100% Wool Cone -- 5000 yards

Certainly, I could spare a few hundred yards for this project? LOL. The coloration was close enough to the gold bamboo in the batt, so I opted to give it a go. So, I prepped up the Kiwi wheel for plying.

And at first, I wasn't too happy with how it looked, except for certain spots. But I opted to keep trying. I *knew* that the gold would bring out the colors and to trust myself on my knowledge of color theory. My plying wasn't the greatest, but a little help from Jasmin and I got this....

I am definitely in love. The gold really made all of the colors pop and tied everything together. I currently have 495 yards of laceweight/fingering weight yarn. Plus, I still have some of the batt left over. I think I might be able to squeeze another 50-60 yards out.

And think I've found the *perfect pattern* to go with the yarn. I'm not wholly sure how well this yarn will look in this pattern. So I will try a pattern swatch. Now, I just have to figure out how to knit up this pattern (coz after reading it, my head is spinning!)

Wheel versus Spindle

I have a tendency to spend a lot of time on the computer. We don't really watch t.v. so this is our substitute. However, usually, computer time involves some form of either work or play.

I've taken to keeping my drop spindle right by my computer. Anytime anything takes a bit of time to do (i.e. waiting for something to load up, or if I'm just reading an article online), I use the drop spindle. I have a knitting project usually by my computer, but the problem is that if there is a pattern of some sort, I have to pay attention to the knitting rather than what I'm doing on the computer. Sometimes this is not a good combination. However, I can put down my spinning at any given time and not have to worry about remembering where I left off.

This also means I get in a lot of little bits of time spinning in between projects. Now that I own a wheel, I realize that if I only had the wheel, I wouldn't get as much done. Don't get me wrong -- I *LIKE* the wheel. And, I'm getting a bunch of spinning practice done on it -- about 10-15 minutes a day. But, it sits in the living room isolated from most of the bustle of the household, which is nice when I want to get some alone time. It's a nice quiet form of meditation.

However, when I'm with DH or on the computer or on the go, it'll be the drop spindle I reach for the most -- it's very portable. And I know that plying will be more of a "breeze" on the wheel than on the spindle.

The wheel is going to get a lot of use; but I think the drop spindles are going to get much more used just because of my lifestyle.