Question for my crafty friends

[takhisis]

As some of you know, I've been trying to get my grandmother's spinning wheel repaired for some time now. One of our good friends is working on it, but at best it'll most likely still be a display model

Comments

[starcrossedlady]

ok. forgive me if I come up with some lamecrap. but here's a few questions:

*Have you used any sort of wheel before? there are nice wheels that are pretty easy to get a groove on and then there's wheels that... well, can be a pain.
*Are you primarily going to do wool, or are you wanting to spin cotton, flax, yadda yadda?
*Portable: necessary evil or not really in the equation?

There are some spinning guilds about the country (sadly, the closest to me is like 6 hours away so that's not feasible for me). If there's one nearby, or even better, a shop, you can see about trying a wheel or three and how it feels.

I've heard good things about double-treadles (better able to adjust speed and so forth). But it's also on what you've learned on-- a friend who learned on a single-treadle hates them with a firey passion.

[lemur_lady]

I am very fond of my Schacht Ladybug; the Schacht Matchless is also very nice, but can run upwards of a thousand bucks. What wheel will work well for you is such a subjective thing, though; I agree with the above commenter that if it's in any way possible, find someplace where you can try out a few different wheels (single vs. double treadle, scotch tension vs. irish tension vs. double drive, castle vs. saxony, etc.) and see what you like and what you hate. That will be incredibly valuable information if you can get it.

[amyboyd]

I know a lady who used to do the spinning exhibit at the North Texas Irish Festival. Her name is Donna Hawk. She may be on facebook. The last email I had for her was beadsnfibers@yahoo[dot]com. She's a virtual treasure trove of information on these things.