This is Blue Jeans, an utterly fabulous 75% merino 25% nylon blend which was the Feburary fibre from The Yarn Yard Fibre Club. It is dyed to look like old ripped and faded jeans, and it's a measure of Natalie's sure eye for colour that what looked a bit "Really???" in the braid is spinning up to give just the promised effect. (I promise to belive you next time, Natalie!)
I get a 200g sub, so this is 100g spun up to give singles that I trust will ply to a heavyish sock weight yarn. You can probably tell I'm going for a lot of twist here, which is easy with the WindWheel and its effortless not-quite-a-treadle pulley drive. It only has one ratio but frankly, you don't need ratios with this wheel. You just move from a slow waltz-beat toe tap to more of a cha-cha-cha. Big bobbins too, which easily hold the 100g in one braid of Natalie's fibre. My only small criticism of this wheel is that it doesn't have quite enough hooks on the flyer to wind the bobbin totally evenly. One more would have made all the difference between this peaks-and-valley effect you see here and a smoothly wound bobbin. Oh well, small complaint given that it's an otherwise superb wheel. I always rewind my bobbins on the trusty Louet S10 before plying anyway.
I will be taking the WindWheel to SkipNorth next week, by the way, so anyone that wants to play on it will be most welcome to do so. Ohhh, only ten more days to SkipNorth! I can hardly belive this will be my fourth year of going to it!
3 comments:
Have you considered adding a row of hooks to the other arm of the flyer (if that's what it's called on this unusual wheel)? I did that with my first wheel, and Ashford Traditional, and it worked out splendidly. I just measured across to be sure that I was offsetting them between the hooks on the other side, then just flip the yarn to across each time to the next hook. With this being a unique wheel, perhaps you would prefer not to alter it?
Best of luck - it looks like you've got that hang of it now :)
You mastered the Windwheel, Way to go! The "Blue Jeans" looks awesome! Nice job.
oh will you have someone do a video of you using it so we can see it in action ;)
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