I’m back from Albuquerque and my spinning class. It was fantastic! Great teacher and the other students were very nice and lots of fun. I learned lots of new stuff and found out that my self taught spinning habits were…right!

As you may know, there are no local shops where I live which carry spinning wheels. I bought my Sonata online without having ever seen a wheel in real life, much less spun on one. I’ve been really happy with it, but I’ve also been wondering if there was another wheel out there that I might like better. Well, this week end I got to try these wheels: Hitchhiker, Ashford Kiwi, Ashfort Traditional, Louet Victoria, and a Lendrum. And the verdict is . . . I still love my Sonata. I don’t know if it’s because I’m used to it, but after trying the other wheels I am totally happy with mine and now I don’t have to wonder about it anymore. And one thing about the new Victoria, it’s fussy! Our instructor was using it and she had quite a bit of stopping and adjusting going on all weekend long. The Hitchhiker was adorable, but it’s heel/toe treadling was really hard to get used to. I really didn’t like the way the Lendrum tilts, but it did spin nicely. The Kiwi was cute, but way too much trouble to change from the regular flyer to the plying flyer (she was having to take things apart and put back together with Allen wrenches). So, my wheel choice has been affirmed. All my baby Sonata needs is the jumbo flyer - if Kromski ever releases them.

I got to learn/do hand and drum carding. I’ve been really curious about both and was so glad to get to try my hand at them. I then spun up the rolags and batts I made. Not too bad!

I learned to do the long draw (well sorta, still spinning “designer yarn” with it so far) and spinning from the fold.

We also took dyed mohair locks and incorporated them into our yarn while plying. That’s really cool and I loved the resultant yarn, very designer looking.

I got to handle raw fleece and work with a washed fleece, my first time for both. The washed fleece was what we used for our carding exercises.

We also learned about WPI and twist angles. A bit of theory about twists and plying too.

All in all it was a great class and I learned a lot and the instructor covered all the things I had questions about. So, now I’m off to practice that long draw!

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.