Wheel Cleaning

I finished giving the Ashford Traditional wheel a clean and tune up.  The first thing was to add some more hooks on the flyer - set between the existing hooks on the opposite side, to allow a more evenly spread bobbin when I'm doing thinner singles. While I was doing that I replaced the existing hooks so that they at least matched the new ones.  The hook for the scotch tension spring was also replaced while I was at it.

New hooks on the flyer (bottom) and replaced (top)

I've also been spinning singles using the multitude of coloured roving in the package I received.  I'll spin sections of roving chosen randomly, and eventually make up a three ply which will show off the colours.

Assorted roving

There's several blues, greens and purples, and some grey and various wool and mohair and blends of the two.  All, I believe, home dyed. Each is a little bit different to spin, but so far it's working well.

Wheel ready to go

I undid the leather joining the conrod to the treadle assembly and treated it with some natural leather protection.  Then applied some vaseline to any bearing surface before treating all the wood with tung oil (applied and then buffed off).  The wood treatment has hidden 90% of the minor scratches and dings.  The wheel now is all but silent, minus the slight noise of the scotch tension on the bobbin.  Perfect.

First yarn from the Ashford

There was a bobbin full of a blended wool singles and I wanted to try out my navajo plying on this wheel.  It went fine and I was quickly able to ply the entire bobbin and wind it into a ball.

Ball of three play

The tension was not absolutely perfect as I got used to the wheel, but overall the yarn came together pretty well and with some more of the fiber in the package I received I should be able to make up enough for some form of project.

Back in Business

My sister-in-law was kind enough to loan me a spinning wheel and find a whole pile of wool/fiber/accessories to keep me busy for some time.  The wheel is a great little Ashford Traditional with a lazy kate and 5 bobbins.

The loaner wheel

Nothing but a quick dust and it'll be ready to go

I gave it a quick wipe down to remove the dust and tried a little bit of roving through the wheel - worked perfectly.  With a touch of wax to dress up the surface and some lubricant on the bearings it will be whisper quiet and looking superb.

There was a bobbin full of some blended (natural) brown with streaks of white wool through it.  I've rewound it as the end had been lost and will navajo ply it into three ply.  A good test to see if the newly acquired skill (on my Rappard in the US) transfers easily to this wheel.

There's a large plastic bucket full of fiber with lots of dyed wool roving, some silk, some mohair, and even some line linen.  It will be fun to go through that and perhaps card up some nice blended colours and experiment with blending in silk or mohair.  Once spun it can go with the very large bag of homespun wool that also came with the wheel.  Then there is a large bag of commercial wool as well.

On the next trip over to Martinborough I will retrieve the loom - I certainly have enough wool to complete quite a few projects in my time here.

Needless to say it is great to be back spinning.

Arrived in New Zealand

Anne and I arrived safely in NZ for our year long stay.  The last few days have been a blur of routine tasks and exploring the city of Wellington again.  It is looking like the loan of a spinning wheel is possible (and a bonus of some bags of wool - content not really known), and as soon as we have a place to stay I will be able to set up the upright loom (so far the places we have looked at are fairly small so it might be a stretch to have two looms up and running!)

The weather has been superb and we are slowly getting over the jet-lag. 

Photo's to follow once I have something set up.