New toy

After several weeks of religiously checking craigslist daily, I finally found a used spinning wheel that met my criteria - it spun wool.

The last wheel I bought was before I started spinning and I thought that I can easily restore an antique spinning wheel to a spinning state. I was wrong. It still sits in my living room. A pretty wheel, but it may see another owner in the near future.

This wheel is an Ashford traditional. Not my desired wheel, the Lendrum Original, but a decent wheel that can tide me over until I can get my hands on a Lendrum (which has a 4 month waiting list the last time I checked). I personally love the way the "sleeping beauty" style wheels look, but they take up so much space. The Lendrum folds and fits under the bed when needed (not that a spinning wheel NEEDS to be hidden, but very useful for apartment living).

So a little trip out to South Langley bagged me an Ashford Traditional (from the 60's as indicated by the beehive woman on the manual cover) with the complete parts (lazy kate, 4 bobbins) AND a complete jumbo flyer kit w/ 3 extra bobbins. So now I have enough bobbins to spin to my heart's desire. I also found out that the previous 2 owners were probably not hardcore spinners, indicated by the fact that the regular flyer has yet to be assembled and they have been spinning on the jumbo flyer only. In other words, I got a barely used spinning wheel for $300 (worth at least $750 new).

Only downside is, since it is a wheel from the 60's, the flyer does not have multiple ratios like the new ones, so I can only spin at one speed (6.5 :1 from what I gather). Kinda bites, but hopefully, I'll get my Lendrum by the time I get good enough to spin the stuff that requires the higher ratios.

For now, I have a new toy that looks great (not saying much about the wood stain choice :P). It's intact and it spins wool.... or it will spin wool when I get a tension spring and some wood screws.

I'll get some pics up when i get to it. ;)