Meet Rose

I've been a little busy this week and haven't had time to post pictures but my new spinning wheel came on Tuesday. I didn't really get to play with her because I was out attending a memorial for a friend who lost his 15 year old nephew on July 11th.

Lily on the left is my Little Gem. I've decided to name the Ladybug Rose. If you look closely you can see the ladybug on the left rear leg. I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this wheel. It is very easy to treadle. I haven't had as much time to play because I am trying to finish the second bobbin of Ashford merino/silk that I am spinning on Lily. Fine yarn takes forever to spin. I just finished the 2nd 100 gram bag of fibre and am trying to see if I can fit 60 more grams on each of the two bobbins. Then I'll use the wild flyer, I hope, to ply the two together. I want to be done spinning the rest of this by next weekend so I have the weekend to get it plied.


Here you can see a close of of the ladybug. I won't deny that I wish it was in a more visible place but I love her just the same. It is beyond cute.

I also learned from the Schacht group on Ravelry how to set her up in hybrid double drive. You can find out more info on hybrid double drive here. I am using the high speed bobbin that I got at the same time as the wheel and the super high speed whorl. Right now I am not having any difficulty treadling but that might change as the bobbin fills. I'm a little surprised that I did not have any difficulty going from Scotch tension to double drive. I've heard people prefer one over the other usually based on how they learned. I find much less tug on the bobbin when I am trying to spin fine singles and that works much better for me. I don't have to wrap the singles around different hooks to slow the take up like I have to do in Scotch tension.

You can see from the close up that the poly band that came with the wheel goes from the drive wheel to the whorl. The cord goes from the drive wheel to the bobbin. The bobbin gets flipped around from the way it is with Scotch tension and that's why I am using the high speed bobbin for double drive. I'm told that for Scotch tension it doesn't make a difference.

Back to spinning the Ashford. Let's see how much I can get done today.