Wheels, that is!

I am still of course, in love with Genevieve – my purple Ashford Kiwi wheel – but as much as I love her, and she’s been a great help to my business… I have to admit that her traditional treadle action is killing my knees. Particularly my right knee, which came into this spinning thing with a handicap of being borked from years of dancing.

Enter my dear pal Ady Bee and her shop KnittinK Yarn. She and I were having a discussion a while back about spinning, my knee, and my wheel. She recommended SpinOlution Spinning Wheels for their unique treadling action, as well as their overall awesomeness.

After some back-and-forth chatter about price, space, and what exactly bothered my knee, we settled on a SpinOlution Mach II wheel.

Spinolution Mach II wheel and yarns

So… obviously, I had the delivery of my wheel today. *grin*

My first impressions:

• it is quite easy to assemble
• it is much heavier than the Kiwi
• it is made incredibly well and makes sense to work with
• it has almost no learning curve – I sat down and was spinning right away
• getting the bobbins on and off: a dream, it’s so easy.

It stands a touch taller than the Kiwi, but is much wider side-to-side. However, it has a thinner profile and will sit much closer to a wall when stored. [like that ever happens]
As I’ve mentioned, the treadling is different. Instead of my knees being engaged as my feet go heel-toe on the treadles, on the SpinOlution there is more of a side-to-side rocking feel. It is completely easy on my joints, and in fact, Squeegee Cat can sit on my lap while I spin quite comfortably. With the Kiwi, he gets jostled up and down!

There are five-count-them-five ratios to choose from; for the non-spinners out there, that means I have a five-speed wheel, like a racing car. I even have toe brakes, in case I get carried away!

And there’s one more awesome thing… a HUGE flyer/bobbin assembly [with the optin to get an even BIGGER one] that has an open orifice. What that means, my non-spinning loves, is that I can pretty much put anything into my yarn that I can dream of using. And that opens YOU up to request the weirdest yarns possible. If I can get it into a yarn, I will. Highly textured and bulky yarns, here we come!

I am sooooooo excited! I’ve already cranked out two yarns in that many hours!

BIG thanks to Rob L for bringing my dream to fruition. ♥