Yarn Pirate Shop →

I got my new wheel last week!

This is a Pocket Wheel. They’re made by a local craftsman and he was kind enough to deliver it to me on his way to Seattle. I saw this wheel in action at the Evergreen State Fair last summer and had a chance to try it out. I got on the waiting list for one of my own right away. I waited for 8 months. I ordered a wheel made out of cherry wood. I’m so glad I went with the cherry. It’s so warm and pretty.

I’ve been spinning on a Babe Wheel since I learned 2 1/2 years ago. I’ve been very happy with the Babe. It got me started spinning for very little money, and I’ve spun some damn fine yarn with it. Recently I’ve become frustrated with it’s limitations though. It’s not very adjustable, and I really have to work hard to spin something blue-ribbon worthy (and we all know how I love winning those ribbons!). So it was definitely time for an upgrade. I went with the Pocket Wheel because it was small, light weight, infinitely adjustable, and innovative in design.

I’ve been getting to know my new wheel for a few days now. It’s so different from spinning on my Babe. It’s kind of like going from a canoe to a speed boat. The PW is flyer-driven and uses scotch tension. It’s really touchy, and in a lot of ways it feels like I’m learning to spin all over again.

These are the last two skeins I spun on my Babe. The skein on top is some merino from All Spun Up. It took me the entire month of April to spin. I wanted a sport weight 3-ply yarn so I had to spin the singles really fine. It was super annoying, which is probably why it took me so long to spin. I wound up with 392 yd though. I have another 4 oz of this colorway to spin. I’m looking forward to seeing if it will be easier to spin on the PW. The bottom skein is some superwash merino from Zen String. This was my official last skein on the Babe. It’s 162 yd, chunky weight. The colorway is “Makeda” for you ZS junkies out there. It was such a bright, cheery, fun spin.

Here’s my first skein spun on my PW. This is BFL from Spunky Eclectic. The singles were pretty wonky and overspun. I haven’t overspun my singles for a long time, so this part was frustrating for me. The wonkiness was more from experimenting with different ratios to get the WPI I desired. That part was awesome! I couldn’t do that with my Babe at all. Plying was hard, and weird to get accustomed to. The Babe wheel is bobbin-driven, so when I plied on it everything would go in reverse- the wheel, the bobbin, the flyer. The PW is flyer-driven so the wheel goes in the opposite direction but the bobbin rotates in the same direction it did when I was spinning the singles. Or at least that’s what it seemed like when I was trying to ply at 1am the other day. It’s also kind of weird, like trying to pedal a bike in reverse. There was much stopping and starting and swearing while I tried to ply this, much like my first attempts at plying on the Babe.

I’m looking forward to getting to know my new wheel better this summer, and I’m going to attempt to teach my friend how to spin on the Babe. We both have toddlers, so I don’t know how successful I’ll be. To celebrate my new wheel I’ve put together a very fiber-centric shop update. It will be around 8pm PDT on Thursday night. I have lots of fiber and sock yarn up for grabs right now at The Loopy Ewe too.