…and then there were 3!

Yep, my double treadle finally arrived last week! I’m not usually a person who names things, but the names for all 3 wheels came to me in a flash of inspiration: Blondie (DT), Honey (ST), and Wench (Clemes). Me and my 3 slutty wheels – it fits since I’m pretty much a hoar for fiber.

I like the double-treadle, although it feels like I’m going too fast. I think the single treadle is actually a bit more relaxing – it has a slower rhythm with a slight pause that’s kind of reminiscent of swinging.

I’m also – cough, hack – a bit disappointed in the size of the plying head. I would have been duly impressed and awed if I hadn’t already seen and used my friend Tom’s plying head. He has a really cool 30-year-old Lendrum that I believe is one of the first models made. He has the original wire footman, and amazingly is still on the original drivebands. One of the things that sold me on the Lendrum was his ginormous plying head. (Ok, for you non-spinny types out there who really have your minds in the gutter – it’s just a very large bobbin that can fit 3 or 4 normal bobbin’s worth of yarn – handy, because when you ply (twist) two singles (yarn) that you’ve spun together to equalize the twist, you end up with twice as much yarn. If you only have “normal” sized bobbins, that means you have to cut your yarn in half in order to ply it. Highly annoying because weaving in ends in knitting is highly annoying….) Still with me? Back to the gutter, then – anyway, when my Lendrum came in and I took out the plying head, I thought, “Gosh, I’m pretty sure Tom’s was bigger.” I showed it to my friend Michelle who said, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure Tom’s was bigger.” So when I went down to Ranch of the Oaks yesterday, I grabbed a hold of Tom’s plying head, and sure enough – it’s like twice the size of mine. Yep, spinnis envy.