Friday, March 7, 2008

First Ball finished!

One ball finished of my spindle yarn. It was very addictive! I thought my hands were in shape from knitting so many bulky and multiple stranded items, but after a day the muscles of my left hand were aching... and I still couldn't put it down!

I'm a little disappointed that it appears I can only fit 1oz of yarn on the spindle at a time. I don't know if it's a limitation of my beginner's spindle or my inexperience, but if I tried to fit more on there the yarn would get in the way of getting it to spin. I am guessing this is because the shaft is rather short.

Plying was a little hairy. I clearly put too much twist into my plies, because they kept doing that thing telephone cords do after they have a lot of twist in them. And the skein I wound on my hand to keep the yarn on my wrist while I plied was apparently done incorrectly, because the inside pull tried to cut my wrist off on the first pull. So then I had great fun trying to keep it from winding around the yarn I was plying. Oy.

But all in all, I'm liking spinning and so now the daunting task of choosing a spinning wheel sits before me. I like the price-point of The Hitchhiker and its portability, but what few reviews I could find on the web indicated that people had problems with it when plying because of the direction reversal. I love the idea of a Fairy-tale wheel (or castle wheel) but as I know I'm going to be doing a lot of my spinning in front of the TV (in our tiny, post-Katrina apartment), it's not practical. So I have to stick with portable, low-profile models. The Ladybug seems to fit those criteria, but I'm not too sure I like it's looks. I can understand an inexpensive model like the Hitchhiker being constructed of what looks like primarily plywood, but at twice the price the Ladybug should have a little more hard wood in it, if you ask me.

It probably doesn't help that I'm relying solely on pictures on the internet. If I thought I could talk my husband into driving me forty minutes to a local spinning shop to check out wheels, I would. Perhaps I will at time of purchase, since saving on shipping would appeal to his cheap side. :P

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