Week 1: Schacht Ladybug spinning wheel

The unboxing

Box is enormous. Comes with a sticker saying “Keep this box!”. Have nowhere to keep it, so broke it down and recycled after the cat had played with it.

First disappointment

Comes with 3x bobbins. Great! Except they give you the crappy brown plastic ‘travel’ bobbins, not the nice wooden ones.

Assembly

Minimal, and the instructions are clear. You have to attach the treadles to the front leg, and then connect the footmen to the treadles.

When that’s done, you need to fish out the flyer assembly and make sure it’s in place. (I think this is a future how-to video).

I also bought the tensioned Lazy Kate that’s designed for the Ladybug. Again, assembly was very straightforward.

First spin

Woohoo! Looking good! Noticing that one of the spare bobbins I’ve attached to the Lazy Kate seems to be moving a bit as I’m spinning, but not really a problem. Makes a lovely noise.

First problem

Treadling was becoming increasingly effortful over a period of about 20 minutes. I tried a few drops of oil, but still no joy. I stopped, and couldn’t work it out. Then I realized that the aforementioned wobbly bobbin — which had a leader attached, and a length of spun single out of the box — had been unwinding itself while I was spinning. It was entirely wrapped around the axel that attaches the wheel to the drive hub.

Emergency surgery took approx. 40 minutes. No joke. Used the hook thing for pulling yarn through the orifice, a sharp paring knife and needle-point tweezers to extract the yarn. Still don’t think I have it all out, but the wheel turns effortlessly again, so I think it’s OK for now?

Second problem

Something’s knocking when I spin. I let the yarn wind up completely onto the bobbin and tried just treadling it for a while. No knocking. Pulled yarn back through orifice and started again: knocking. Definitely the bobbin. Tried a bit of oil. More knocking.

Turns out, too much oil will make for a really noisy bobbin (thank you Google). Removed the whole flyer assembly and wiped down the shaft with Fairy liquid to degrease it. Also twisted up some paper towel and threaded it through the bobbin to remove any grease inside. Sounds better already.

Learning to spin fiber [WIP]

Thought I’d record my path toward spinning on a spinning wheel, for anyone who was interested! I consider myself to be self-taught: I’ve learned using lots of different youtube videos and much trial and error.

Rhinebeck, New York: October 2015

Couldn’t spin, but wanted to learn! Bought beautiful laceweight drop spindle from Stefania Spins at Rhinebeck. Also bought a bag of odds and ends of fiber from Into the Whirled and a bag of untreated fleece direct from the owner of Roger: a belligerent ram with a very soft coat.

Brooklyn, New York: November 2015

Park and draft, park and draft, park and draft.

Watched a LOT of youtube videos and concentrated my efforts on spinning singles. Park and draft was very boring, but at least the fiber didn’t keep breaking and dropping my spindle on the floor. Lumpy and bumpy, not much control.

Videos I found useful at this stage:

• Megan LaCore Spinning yarn on a drop spindle
• Paradise Fibers How to spin on a drop spindle
• MeganERiskTutorials Basic drop spindle tutorial

London: May 2016

Dug the spindle back out and thought I’d give it a proper go again. Used the odds and ends from Into the Whirled, and concentrated on drafting more evenly. When that happened more often, and I dropped the spindle less, I looked at plying.

 

Videos I found useful at this stage:

• Brandi Schoch Andean plying (using a ‘bracelet’ to ply from is particularly useful if you (a) only have a small amount of your singles and (b) dislike spinning from both ends of a makeshift ball)
• Katniss1986 Chain plying on top whorl spindle (this is the ONLY video on navajo plying that made any sense at all to me. She’s super clear and goes slowly enough to follow!)

London: Summer 2016

Lots of video watching for more advanced techniques. Starting to consider a spinning wheel.

Videos I found useful at this stage:

• Abby Franquemont Should you buy that old spinning wheel?  (tl;dr probably not)
• Voolenvine YARNGASM: Spinning on a drop spindle

London: October 2016

Starting to really hanker after a wheel, but wasn’t keen to splurge the cash before researching thoroughly. I bought Amy King’s Foundations of Spinning on Craftsy, and found it really helpful, particularly the theory covered in the first few classes. I watched the first few lessons before taking an in-person course.

You have to pay for classes on Craftsy, but in my experience they’re extremely well shot, and you have access to them forever. You can also ask questions of your tutor, who’ll answer them, and the site works really well across different platforms/screen sizes.

Signed up for a class at the Handweavers Studio in Holloway to actually learn from a real human being (not a video) and to have a go on a spinning wheel for the first time. Got to try a couple of Ashford models: the Traditional and the Kiwi.

Good news: I like spinning on a spinning wheel. Bad news: spinning wheels are expensive.

Videos I found useful at this stage:

• Amy King Foundations of spinning on Craftsy (NOT free!)

London: November 2016

Chose a wheel. This was hard. I think there’s probably a future post in “how I chose my wheel” so I’ll keep this brief 🙂 Mid-month my Schacht Ladybug spinning wheel arrived!

My favourite announcer on the F train:

“Thizziz se’nd av’noo, nexstahp braw’way la-fee-ETTE. Stanclearudda clohsindaws please.”

Books you never knew you wanted to read vol 1

brought to you from the shelves of the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe

“Are wrestling girls merely freaks, or do they know the same warm desires and emotions as other women? How does it feel to be exhibited night after night, clad only in tights, before audiences loose-lipped with bestial, lustful hungers? Can a professional fighting girl experience genuine tenderness, love?…Or does she become brutalized, morally impoverished, sapped of all womanly decency from the sordid exhibitions in which she takes part?

These are some of the questions answered in this daringly realistic novel!”

I’m going to need $25.

Comic Book Club

Well, it’s date night but DSpin is in Colorado, probably eating elk. (That is, if he got to the restaurant on time: it shuts at 9pm). Rather than sit in the Bat Cave all evening, I did my usual trick and searched for free stuff to do on Time Out. It never fails and today it came up with a real doozie – the Comic Book Club.

Three comic book fans broadcasting a weekly podcast LIVE from the back room of a bar, along with guests. What’s not to like? This week it was Jordan D White who is an editor over at Marvel. It was suggested (perhaps cruelly?) that he looked a little like the man on the Pringles carton. I thought he looked rather dapper. Anyway, the format of the podcast itself seemed pretty established, and I found myself laughing even though I probably ‘got’ about 30% of the jokes/content. Naturally I now have a long list of back reading to do. White’s ukelele songs were superb, and I truly never thought I’d hear a song sung in Japanese by a cat on a Tuesday night in the Lower East Side. Have a listen to his podcasts here.

But that wasn’t all – oh no. Tonight ABC broadcast the first episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and they played it to us! Right after the show! Then the chaps gave a commentary in the breaks. Brilliant.

Overheard conversations vol 8

Mid-afternoon. Children are heading to the subway after class.

Child 1: How you get here so fast?!

Child 2: Teleported, nigga!

Where do you live?

It’s my first knitting circle. Everyone is very friendly. So friendly, in fact, that no one points out to me that the sock I am knitting is quite clearly enormous and completely unfit for purpose.

Knitter #1: So where do you live?

This is the question I have been dreading. Brooklynites get pretty territorial about neighborhoods and where we live seems to be at the junction of three different ones. I attempt to dodge the bullet and give them the street address.

Knitter #1: So which neighbourhood is that?

Knitter #2: It’s Park Slope.

Me: Um, there aren’t really many nannies with prams where I am, so I don’t think…

Knitter #3: Ah – it’s South Slope.

Me: Uh, well, I’m not really sure. I think it might be Gowanus?

Knitter #1: When I moved here in ’73, Gowanus didn’t exist!

Knitter #2: Neither did South Slope.

Knitter #4: Is it maybe Windsor Terrace?

Knitter #1: No! That stops at Prospect Park West.

So that clears that one up then.

Great signage, vol 6

Remember Pauline and Sharon’s? “Purveyors of delicious pizza” these chaps may be, but sparkling conversationalists they ain’t. They have, however, surpassed themselves with their latest sign printed in 48pt Calibri. I would have taken a photo of it, but didn’t wish to incur their wrath.

 

If u want a discount then fuck off!!

Not joking

Reader, I married him…

…and flew back to the USA just over a month ago with an E-2 visa, which will allow me to work. I’m feeling settled back in the apartment, aka the Bat Cave. (Don’t get me wrong – I rather like it here, but there isn’t much natural light). I’m just back from having my biometrics taken at a Remote Location in Brooklyn and am now a step closer to getting my work authorization through. As it can take up to three months to process, I’ve joined the Park Slope Knitting Circle, because knitting is ace. I will be volunteering at any place that will take me. So far:

– Bluestockings (a collectively owned, volunteer run anarcho-feminist bookstore on the Lower East Side)

– Housing Works Bookstore/Cafe (awesome second-hand bookstore in SoHo supporting people living with HIV and AIDS)

– Gowanus Canal Conservancy (attempting to beautify/clean up the toxic mulch that is the Gowanus Canal – see posts passim)

and the Park Slope Food Co-Op, if they’d only let me attend an orientation session.

Hello UK

Dear all,

Putting the blog into mothballs for the time being now that I’m back in the UK. Thanks so much for the messages and feedback and I’ll be seeing (some of) you in the near future. In the meantime, check out the graphic below and see how many fellow readers you reckon you can identify from their location. Djibouti is a no-brainer.

Lots of love,

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