I'm so excited, I just can't hide it...
I'm re-inventing the wheel. The spinning wheel. Actually, I'm not really re-inventing it as much as I am reverse engineering and simplifying it a bit for my needs. Let me start from the beginning:
In the beginning (9 long months ago) I learned to spin on The Drop Spindle (bottom whorl). I was immediately obsessed with spinning (interesting side note: "sie spinnt" means "she spins" and "she's crazy" in deutsch) and googled and flickrd and youtubed everything spinning-related. How I COVETED turkish spindles and spinning wheels, especially the Ashfords. Eventually Boifren would surprise me with a batch of fiber and my own drop spindle (top whorl), a wonderful even if somewhat addiction-enabling gift. I love my drop spindle. I think that it's the perfect weight and size for my skill level. I can count on just one hand how many times I've dropped it while spinning; we have a pretty solid relationship. But, I never stop thinking about spinning wheels. I mean, if I can spin and ply over 6 oz. of fiber in two days with a drop spindle, how much frickin fiber can I spin in twice that amount of time on a wheel? A sweater-load? Definitely an ass load.
I asked for a spinning wheel for Christmas, knowing that it wouldn't happen (and never will). I'll probably always ask for an Ashford traveler wheel every year for the rest of my years. However, I actually do have the skills and intellectual ability to make a wheel myself. No, it won't be turned oak or even wood at all (although I did find gorgeously/nauseatingly detailed plans for one here: www.craftsmanspace.com/Free%20projects/Spinning%20Wheel.pdf). It will, however, be fully functional and affordable.
I found a youtube video of a guy spinning on a "wheel" had made from cardboard (and I found the DIY how-to instructions as well), and that got my wheels turning (hahaha, I'm hilarious!). Then, I found Babe's Fiber Garden and their PVC/wheelchair spinning wheels, which are for sale. For $200-300!!! A coupla hundred dollars for a box of PVC and polyurethane cord? That you have to put together yourself? "No ma'am. I can build that shit myself," is what went through my head. But, BFG (not the Dahl character) is smart and only posted teeny tiny pictures of the wheels, making it somewhat hard to reverse engineer.
And then I found this flickr album: www.flickr.com/photos/stellalunag/3355852828/in/set-72157605826018027/ which has wonderful closeups and decent construction descriptions of the PVC wheels. She also points out problems and bugs, which other people have posted solutions to in her comments (like filling the frame with water/sand to make it more stable and keep it from wobbling while you spin!). She also has a video of her using it, and after she gets the wheel going, it looks pretty fucking functional to me.
The plan:
This saturday, while Mah Boifren & I are waiting around for Kitty to get snipped, we're going to have a hardware store date. He needs car/painting/manly man stuff. I need to get some PVC, PVC joins, polyurethane cord, miscellaneous hardware for the footman/rodman/treadle, plumbing glue, and a bike wheel (fixed axle). The only non-hardware store item I need is a standard Ashford (or other brand) fly/bobbin. They're pricey, but not too bad. I bet I can have this baby together and running by next week. Right when school starts and I won't have time to use it! YAY! Regardless, I'm seriously excited about this project. I'm also going to decorate/paint/mod podge the wheel so that it's all purdy and people are all like "where'd you get that awesome wheel?" instead of like "what the fuck is that torture device doing in the corner?!"
In the beginning (9 long months ago) I learned to spin on The Drop Spindle (bottom whorl). I was immediately obsessed with spinning (interesting side note: "sie spinnt" means "she spins" and "she's crazy" in deutsch) and googled and flickrd and youtubed everything spinning-related. How I COVETED turkish spindles and spinning wheels, especially the Ashfords. Eventually Boifren would surprise me with a batch of fiber and my own drop spindle (top whorl), a wonderful even if somewhat addiction-enabling gift. I love my drop spindle. I think that it's the perfect weight and size for my skill level. I can count on just one hand how many times I've dropped it while spinning; we have a pretty solid relationship. But, I never stop thinking about spinning wheels. I mean, if I can spin and ply over 6 oz. of fiber in two days with a drop spindle, how much frickin fiber can I spin in twice that amount of time on a wheel? A sweater-load? Definitely an ass load.
I asked for a spinning wheel for Christmas, knowing that it wouldn't happen (and never will). I'll probably always ask for an Ashford traveler wheel every year for the rest of my years. However, I actually do have the skills and intellectual ability to make a wheel myself. No, it won't be turned oak or even wood at all (although I did find gorgeously/nauseatingly detailed plans for one here: www.craftsmanspace.com/Free%20projects/Spinning%20Wheel.pdf). It will, however, be fully functional and affordable.
I found a youtube video of a guy spinning on a "wheel" had made from cardboard (and I found the DIY how-to instructions as well), and that got my wheels turning (hahaha, I'm hilarious!). Then, I found Babe's Fiber Garden and their PVC/wheelchair spinning wheels, which are for sale. For $200-300!!! A coupla hundred dollars for a box of PVC and polyurethane cord? That you have to put together yourself? "No ma'am. I can build that shit myself," is what went through my head. But, BFG (not the Dahl character) is smart and only posted teeny tiny pictures of the wheels, making it somewhat hard to reverse engineer.
And then I found this flickr album: www.flickr.com/photos/stellalunag/3355852828/in/set-72157605826018027/ which has wonderful closeups and decent construction descriptions of the PVC wheels. She also points out problems and bugs, which other people have posted solutions to in her comments (like filling the frame with water/sand to make it more stable and keep it from wobbling while you spin!). She also has a video of her using it, and after she gets the wheel going, it looks pretty fucking functional to me.
The plan:
This saturday, while Mah Boifren & I are waiting around for Kitty to get snipped, we're going to have a hardware store date. He needs car/painting/manly man stuff. I need to get some PVC, PVC joins, polyurethane cord, miscellaneous hardware for the footman/rodman/treadle, plumbing glue, and a bike wheel (fixed axle). The only non-hardware store item I need is a standard Ashford (or other brand) fly/bobbin. They're pricey, but not too bad. I bet I can have this baby together and running by next week. Right when school starts and I won't have time to use it! YAY! Regardless, I'm seriously excited about this project. I'm also going to decorate/paint/mod podge the wheel so that it's all purdy and people are all like "where'd you get that awesome wheel?" instead of like "what the fuck is that torture device doing in the corner?!"