Spinning Wheels

Picking a new or second-hand wheel is pretty straight forward. If its an Ashford and the seller tells you its in going order, you should expect it to be good to go. A new wheel is always optimal, but if you can't afford that you may be stuck with a wheel that is a bit suspect. Talk to the seller and remember it is always best to buy  a wheel from someone who actually used it for spinning  themselves. They can give you a demo before you hand over the hard cash.

The picture above shows my standard Ashford wheel with some green Polworth fleece. These are great wheels for beginners, and are easy-going, non-fussy machines for spinning most kinds of wool . At the bottom you can see my jersey, which is 1/2 wool and 1/2 alpaca, almost done and dusted.

This Collinson wheel above is a great wheel for beginners because it doesn't matter how fast you peddle it, the wheel just plods along slowly, giving learners plenty of time to do what they have to do. Tucked into the top of the wheel  is some raw fleece, and on the ground is what it looks like once it is spun up. The cone has some commercial yarn on it for plying two strands of wool together.

 

This wheel above is my favourite wheel because it can handle all my phat wool. Or if the mood takes me I can ply heaps of yarn onto the big bobbin. Its called a Tiki Wheel and was made by a chap called Mr Poole.