My New Wheel

I've wanted a double treadle spinning wheel for a long time now.  And, I've wanted a wheel that is more portable than the Ashford Traditional and the Country Craftsman wheels that I have.  I just couldn't justify buying one since I had two wheels that worked just fine.  However, when my Traditional wheel broke a few months ago, I felt it was time.

I was loading it up in my car and heading to Tucson to see my daughter.  I was planning to take some private spinning lessons from someone I'd met there.  When I got to my Tucson and took it out of the car, a big section of it fell off...the part with the uprights, the bobbin, etc.  A piece of wood that attaches it all to the wheel had snapped in half along the grain line of the wood.  I have a feeling it's not meant to be transported a lot...even though I try to be very gentle with it.  However, most of the spinning I do is when I'm meeting up with other spinners somewhere other than home.

That was a perfect time for it to break though because there's a yarn shop in Tucson called Grandma's Spinning Wheel.  Which, as you might guess, sells spinning wheels.  I paid them a few visits to test out the many wheels they carry.  I'd dreamt for years about getting an Ashford Joy wheel.  I love the idea of how they fold up and fit into a handy carrying case.  However, when I had the opportunity to test it out, I really didn't like it.  I also couldn't justify the high price for a wheel that seemed so delicate.  I ended up falling in love with the Ashford Kiwi.  I had fallen in love with a Kiwi years ago when I tried one out but to like this wheel over all the other high dollar ones was surprising.  A very nice surprise!  The cost was about half.

I ordered one that was unfinished to save a little more money.  And, I thought it would be nice to personalize it.  I had grand ideas of painting beautiful things on it and lots of bright happy colors.  I decided against doing that when I imagined all of that flashing at me as the wheel spun round and round.  So, I went for a simpler design...I painted the wheel in my favorite color and gave the rest a subtle stain with a satin finish.  I'm very happy with the results.  I think it's beautiful!

I have to admit that there were many times I'd wished I'd splurged on a finished version.  I don't enjoy sanding and I was worried that the stain wouldn't work out or that the whole thing wouldn't turn out nice.  Luckily, my hubby loves to sand, stain, paint, and finish things like this and he was more than happy to help out.  In fact, he did a lot more work on it than I did.  But, it was a lot of fun working on it together with the stain and then putting it together.

There were a lot of parts!  And, this picture doesn't even show the bag of hardware for putting it all together!

Since my new wheel is my favorite color, it made sense to have my first bit of spinning on it be in that color as well!

I'll post a pic of the yarn when I get some done.  I've had a crazy, vertigo, sinus thing going on for most of the week that's prevented me from doing much of anything.  I'm hoping to get back at it now that I'm starting to feel a bit more normal.