Monday, January 17, 2011

Have Wheel, Will Travel

In anticipation of alpaca shearing season, I asked for a spinning wheel for Christmas. Several family members gave me generous sums of money. The day after I returned home, I headed out to Stitches 'n Scones and purchased a recommended model: the Ashford "Traveler," which features a double treadle. That means you can use both feet to make the wheel spin, thus decreasing the one-legged fatigue that a single treadle produces.

Who would have guessed that a spinning wheel arrives in a box?


Opening the box with awe at the packaging... and some trepidation:


Look at all those parts! There are 31 steps in the directions - GULP!


Midway, several parts are together, but not connected yet:


Finished, after about 4 hours of careful work! It could have been put together faster, but I re-read each instruction many times so I wouldn't have to re-do any steps... and I didn't want to scratch that beautiful Beechwood!


And here is the "traveling" part! This is how I can transport the wheel easily to spinning lessons and group meetings. I had a great lesson with Christina Wall last Saturday. I have gushed about her knitting designs in previous posts, and she is a wonderful spinning teacher as well. (Classiccableknits.com)


I can't wait to spin on my front porch all of next summer...

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