Muntu Stitches

Last weekend, I took a short trip to Solvang to visit Village Spin and Weaveto try out some spinning wheels. I was wavering between the Ashford Kiwi and the Sonata, and fortunately the night before I discovered Majacraft had a new wheel–the Pioneer. Originally, I was also looking into the Fricke DT because of the price and the double treadles but I really wanted to try the wheels for myself. Anyway, I felt before I spent any money it was probably a great idea to try the wheels out for myself.

The owner (Marsha) of Village Spin and Weave was extremely helpful! And I highly recommend this store!!! Marsha was very patient in showing me all the wheels, asked a lot of questions as to the type of yarns I wanted to spin, single/double treadles, or portability issues and also gave me a quick lesson on treadling and drafting the fiber during spinning. I believe I was in the store for about one hour! She was amazing and after trying several wheels in the store, I knew a spinning wheel was in my future. Actually, I wanted to take a wheel home right then and there.

I got to try the Kromski Sonata. It was a lot smaller than I thought and it is lovely to look at. Maybe because it was my first wheel and attempt at treadling, I found the treadles a little bit sticky and it took a lot of effort treadling. I liked the size and the portability. I loved the looks as well. It’s such a pretty wheel.

As I had seen the Majacraft Pioneer online and knew that Village Spin had this at their store, I knew I wanted to try this one. I liked the looks (compared to the Fricke which is quite similar in engineering). Unfortunately, the assembled wheel was at OFFF. I got to try the Majacraft Suzie Pro instead. All I can say is WOW! Compared to the Sonata, this wheel was a lot easier to treadle and as Marsha explained, “it’s the technology. Traditional versus modern.” The wheel was beautiful and it treadled wonderful and was a very solid wheel. The Suzie Pro was definitely out of my budget, and so Marsha suggested I try the Little Gem to get a feel of the lighter wheel. This is a great wheel as well. Smaller yet treadled easily and very smoothly.

I also got to try the Ashford Traveller and the Joy. Not the Kiwi as this wheel was away at OFFF. I really liked these wheels as well. Treadling was easy, although not as smooth as the Majacrafts but for the price, I think it’s definitely a good deal.

In the end, it was definitely love at first spin with the Majacrafts. I decided to go with the Pioneer even though I didn’t get a chance to try it, I felt after trying the Little Gem and the Suzie Pro I was confident that the Pioneer wouldn’t disappoint. And it hasn’t!!! I haven’t stopped spinning since last weekend. (Well, whenever I have free time.)

Will review the wheel in another post. In the meantime, after fiddling with the ratios and the tension, I’ve spun spun spun. These two handspun are from Fat Cat Knits who has some gorgeous fibers. Yum!

I noticed that a lot of wheel owners have named their wheels. I’ve jokingly told my boyfriend to help me think of a name, and he’s just laughed. Somehow with purchasing the wheel, it’s sort of felt I’ve gone deeper into this world of knitting, fibers, yarns…you know what I mean? I don’t think it’s weird but there’s just no-one I really know in my life who spins, a few knitters but not much. Anyway, I need to make more fiber friends…and soon. Sort of join that fiber-holic anonymous group. Haha. I should at least make an effort to get to know more spinners and knitters, live and in person.

Hello, my name is Belinda, and I am a fiber-holic.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 3rd, 2008 at 6:42 pm and is filed under Ramblings, Spinning, Handspun. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.