My Majacraft's Mate

Welcome to the family little Pioneer. This latest Majacraft wheel, the Pioneer, is a terrific budget wheel that is truly a Majacraft in every way. You put it together in minutes, it spins beautifully and accepts nearly every Majacraft accessory. Mine came from a lovely woman in Australia. It has some wonderful modifications too! A built in handle with a storage slot when not in use. A heavier custom Suzie Pro flywheel, modified axle, and a slot for securing the upright/ flyer when not in use. The heavier flywheel and larger treadles make this Pioneer spin even better than my Suzie Pro Alpaca wheel. I am in love all over again. No more traveling with my Rose, she's staying put. I can now grab my little modded Pioneer and go. I'm so psyched!


Sorry for the crappy camera phone pic...


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Feeling Spinful

Lately I've been feeling rather spinful and have been spending a lot of time at my wheel. I guess its because I have another wheel on the way and I don't want to be in a spinning rut when it arrives. My new-to-me wheel is a Majacraft Pioneer that has been retro fitted to accept both a Suzie Pro wheel and my beautiful Rose wheel.

Until my new wheel's arrival I'll continue to pummel you with fiber eye candy :)

Behold...

Rainy Monday Knitty Lunch

Happy Monday everyone. Its dreary and rainy outside, but the sun is always shining when there's knitting going on. I decide to venture out back to the parking lot for a knitty lunch break. Working on my lace project...

Vanessa

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Bev's new wheel...

I recently sold my Ashford Traditional spinning wheel and all its accessories to a woman named Bev whom I met on Ravelry. I was so moved by her message to me about her interest in the wheel. Even though the wheel was upgraded to a double treadle, I had decided to include the single treadle set up. As it turns out, Bev needed the single treadle for medical reasons. She's a new spinner and the wheel is just a great match for her. I'm soooooo happy that its found a new owner who will love and appreciate it as much as I did. I've decided to limit myself to my Majacraft Rose wheel and a more portable Majacraft Pioneer wheel which I'm in the process of purchasing from another lovely woman who resides down under... Having two wheels from Majacraft means I can interchange all of their wonderful accessories! More on my Majacraft madness later... :)

Congrats on your first yarn Bev!

Getting my weight on...

Sorry, haven't been posting like I used to. Its getting hard to keep up with all the sites, communities and forums that I post to on the regular. With Facebook and Twitter I don't really need to do much else - seems like every site worth its weight in cyber salt now works with both these social networks.

What have I been up to? Well, I'm still spinning and in fact, I've been trying to devise a way to get the "umph" back into my lace spinning. I call it the "mojo"... its the added inertia that my Alpaca spinning wheel had due to its heavier flywheel. My Rose wheel more than makes up for the loss of inertia in that it has higher ratios and spins smoother, plus its just a prettier wheel, IMHO and I love meditativeness (is that a word?) of watching the beautiful spoked wheel spin... On the downside, my feet miss the inertia - My Alpaca wheel was like driving a car that idles too high and always wants to take off on you. I don't want that "take off" feeling all the time, but sometimes I feel like a jet and sometimes I feel like a kite. Sometimes I feel like spinning on a riceburner and other times I feel like spinning on a Harley (motorcycle references). I'd love to have a choice of both. What can I say, I want it all.

Armed with all these jet/kite/motorcyle thoughts in my mind I set out to find a way to make my Rose wheel heavier. I still think the Buckyballs would work well, but I question how much weight they'd actually add. They're pricey too and I don't want to spend $55 for some magnetic beads only to find out I need to spend $100 just to come close to the weight I need. That's when it came to me... I had something at home that would be thin enough, heavy enough and that I could attach to my wheel easily. My weighted braid! Its commonly used to add weight to the bottom of curtains and draperies. I have a roll of it from my days of making dance flags (looong story). So I figured, what the hay? I might as well try it out. The result was exactly what I was hoping for - I got my mojo back! That little "umph" is back - I can feel the force of the wheel and the inertia that keeps it spinning a second or so longer than normal. It may seem like a small thing, but it makes a big difference to me when I'm spinning lace. Now to find a better way to attach it to the wheel. Glue, staples...?