Wednesday, April 19, 2006


About 3 years ago I got seriously addicted to spinning. The same BFLB (best friend left behind) who got me into knitting had gotten a spinning wheel and asked me to buy some spinning wool for her. That got me into the local guild, Canberra Spinners and Weavers and when I saw their Alladin's cave of fibre I was very intrigued. I tried taking spinning lessons but trying to learn on a used Ashford Traveller without knowing how to adjust it and nobody at home with me to tell me what to do was a wash out. I bought from the US a Babe electric wheel and gradually taught myself to spin. I reached the limits of that wheel (there is no way to maintain a steady speed with a foot pedal) and begged a Ertoel Roberta electric wheel as a birthday/anniversary present. I absolutely adore it. It is bobbin driven and has a pedal that acts as an on/off switch. You adjust speed with a dial at the front, there is a brake band for tension and forward and reverse for S or Z spinning. I usually have the wheel on a little table next to my recliner and the pedal goes under one leg, I can spin while watching TV and even with a cat on my lap and only need to shift my weight to start and stop the wheel. I still count myself a learner and am only now starting to seriously knit something from what I've spun (altho I've sold some handspun at a Guild sale). Spinning is truly the most soothing and satisfying hobby I've picked up and I would rather spin than do anything else. It has led me into a magical realm of fibre and the world of sheep breeds. Why else would one got to Bendigo in July that to look at sheep?

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