Good and bad

Good first. I was able to find the colored Danish oil at the other local hardware store. I should have known they'd have it. This place is amazing. It's a small, old fashioned, family owned store. They've got just about anything you could need around the home. Anyway, they didn't have the Red Mahogany, so I went with Cherry. I applied 2 coats with a foam brush, let her sit over night and gave a good rub down with a cloth. And tada...I couldn't be more pleased. The color is not showing up well in the picture. It's a lovely reddish brown color, not orange at all as it appears in the picture. I want to get a coat of wax on her yet too. I've ordered some lavender scented beeswax polish. All you can find in the store is lemon scented furniture wax and I hate lemon scented stuff. I tried to do a bit of spinning as you can see from the white blob on the bobbin. All I can say is I'm glad the wheel came with 2 pounds of fiber. It may take me the whole bag to get the hang of this! It is, of course, difficult learning any skill without the benefit of a teacher, so I'm sure it will take time and practice. There is a lady not far from here who gives spinning lessons, so I may indulge in that option at some point if self-study fails.

I had thought of naming her, but at the moment have decided not to. It does seem to be the thing to do, but I feel a little weird giving an inanimate object a name. For now, she's just "the wheel".

Now the bad. So I got the rest of the yarn I needed to finish the Ali bag. The rest of the knitting went super fast and I finished it on New Year's Day. I felted the bag in the washer with a pair of jeans. It just wouldn't felt properly. I used Wool of the Andes for the whole project and the same size 15 needle for the whole project. Yet after 5 agitation cycles, the bottom still wasn't felted, the straps felted to 2 different lengths (one is about 4 inches longer than the other), the top pipes overfelted making the bag stiff as a board at the top. I can't even get the disaster to sit upright so I could get a picture! I'm completely disappointed in the project. At least it didn't take much time, but the cost of materials was considerable. And there's not really any way to reclaim that yarn. Since it is felt now, I might try cutting it up and making hot pads or something with the body portion. I might try felting the bottom again and doing the same if I can get it to felt. I want to emphasize, I don't think any of this is the patterns fault. Sharon wrote a good pattern, and the bag looked very promising before it was felted. But I would not suggest trying to make such a radical yarn substitution as I did. I also want to say, I loved working with the Wool of the Andes yarn. It was WAY softer than I expected for such a cheap wool. I would seriously think about using this yarn for sweaters. At the moment, the disappointment of this project and the enchantment of the wheel has me pretty much not knitting. I've got the 2 pair of socks and the scarf still on the needles, but I'm not really inspired to work on any of them. For now, concentrating on reading all I can about spinning and practicing on the wheel.

She's heeeere

She arrived at lunchtime today. I had the wheel delivered to the office rather than having it sit on my porch all day while I was at work. Due to a situation at work, I worked through my lunch hour so was able to leave early. Everyone was chiding me that I just wanted to go home and play with my wheel. True, I won't deny it.
This is definitely a Polish wheel. Check out the packing paper.
It looks like there might be whole newspapers. I found myself sorting the packing papers just to see what the Polish newspaper looked like. What a GOOBER! Then I came to my senses and got the wheel unpacked.

It took about an hour and a half with the written instructions and video to figure out how to assemble her. The drive band gave me some trouble. Both instruction and video said the band came attached, which it didn't. There were 2 lengths of twine in the parts bag which were the drive bands. Luckily I've been reading "The Joy of Spinning" and the author describes how to attach a drive band. I think it's right. The wheel turns so I guess that's what's important.

Here she is...
She's still nekid, but I hope to get oil to finish her tomorrow (barring any more crisises at work that would prevent me from getting to the hardware store). My preference is for Red Mahogany Danish Oil, but I may settle for plain Danish Oil or Antique Oil. Chuck said he likes the bare look and I'm starting to think I might like the light wheel as well. Once she's dressed, I'll name her. More pictures this weekend.

Christmas wrap up

With Christmas being in the middle of the week this year, it seemed to go by in a blur. Even so, we had a fantastic Christmas. The husband and I had agreed not to buy each other gifts this year (although I did manage to surprise him with seasons 2&3 of the original Star Trek that I picked up for a song months ago). We both have most of what we want and its hard for him to get me the knitting stuff I want and for me to get him the vintage toys he wants. So we gave each other the gift of a shopping spree. I got EZ's Knitting Around DVD set, Harry Potter & the OOTP DVD, and the books Teach Yourself Visually Spinning and the Harmony Guides Knit & Purl. The family gift exchange was great. Everyone enjoyed their gifts. My sister gave me the Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVD (one of my absolute FAVORITE series. She also pointed out you can go here and get rifftracks for recent movies. I'll be checking these out for sure.)

The most special gift I got was a scrapbook from my mom. She made scrapbooks for both my sister and I. It was so touching I couldn't even look at it without choking up. I have looked at it since then and it's wonderful. Chock full of memories. I will treasure it always.

Wheel update: I heard from Bob yesterday and got the tracking info for the Minstrel. It's schedule to be delivered on Wednesday (although I have my fingers crossed they'll bring it on Monday, it's already in Pennsylvania so the possibility is good). I've decided I want to use a Danish Oil finish on it rather than stain and polyurethane. I checked at the one hardware store in town, but they only had the Danish Oil in Natural and I've got my heart set on Red Mahogany. And for as precious as this wheel is to me, I'm not going to just settle on something. There's another store in town here I can check. And there's always Lowes or Home Depot. Bob suggested Antique Oil, which Ace did have. So if I really truly can't get the Danish Oil I want, I might go with that.

Wheel update

Hooray!! Santa whispered in hubby's ear found a way for me to get my spinning wheel NOW! Well yesterday actually. I ordered the Kromski Minstrel from Winderwood Farm. I'm so excited. Bob said I could have it in as few as 3 days (which I think is HIGHLY unlikely since we are in the middle of the holidays) but certainly in a week. Squee! I'm so excited. Wait, did I say that already. Oh, who cares. I'm SO EXCITED!