Woolee Winder, starting to love it.........

Here is the start of the roving I separated into color sections from the post of February 7th. This is the pile in the upper right hand corner, teal with tips of yellow and purple. I love the way the colors blended. I have 376 yards of this color - it's a bit thinner than fingering weight. Tonight while watching the Olympics I'll start on the mostly purple colorway.

And the Woolee Winder and I have become friends, it's really gotten broken in and is much more pleasant to use. I still need to give Nathan a call to discuss the touchiness of the brake but I'm starting to love it. And no more noise is a great thing - that would have been the deal breaker on whether to keep it or not. I'm spinning so much quicker without having to manually move the position of the yarn on the bobbin - I flew plying. As Martha would say "it's a good thing".

Woolee Winder Update

My Woolee Winder update - it's getting better. The noise is pretty much gone. I started spinning 'real' fiber, not test fiber and it's turning out great. I still haven't gotten it as smooth as I'd like - I've switched up the brake band many times but right now I'm sticking with the same cord I use on my Lendrum. I meant to call Nathan today to talk to him about this but never got around to it - hopefully I won't forget tomorrow.

Very important - I don't want to deter anyone who is thinking of buying one from doing so. I've talked/emailed many folks that have not had any problems at all and love their Woolee Winders. Thank goodness I spoke with one local friend who had the same noise problem when she first got hers - she told me it eventually went away after a bit of spinning. Also so glad I read comments on Ravelry, at least I knew I wasn't the only one.

So, I'm beginning to think I won't be returning it. I'll see how I feel after I spin and ply what I'm working on right now. This is the fiber from the recent post where I pulled it apart at the color changes. This is the primarily teal color with bits of purple and yellow - I like the way it's turning out.

On another note today I was working on a sewing project for the WOW factor for my April weaving guild program on woven devore. Since I'm not enthused about the woven devore I definitely need the WOW factor! I can't tell what it is since some guild members check in with my blog.

Woolee Winder

So the excitement of the arrival of the Woolee Winder quickly wore off Monday evening. As my husband said it sounded like a hunk of junk. With much oiling, tons of oiling, wipe up the drip oiling the clankety-clank and clickety-click have gone away - it's been replaced by a fairly quiet whorling. Sam thinks the teflon piece must have seated in after spinning on it for a while - it was not smooth at all running up and down the chase, would stick in places, now it's fairly smooth. So, that challenge conquered but still the challenge of it not spinning smoothly. A friend of mine brought her wheel with WW on it to guild yesterday for me to try out - oh, so smooth and spun like a dream - hmpf! Others I know had no problems with it. I then wrote to Susan who also has a Majacraft with WW to find out how hers was doing - well, of course, it was spinning beautifully so she suggested I check out the posts on the Majacraft group on Ravelry. Thank you Susan! I learned that the brake cord that comes standard on the Majacraft and works beautifully with the plastic bobbins does not like wood bobbins. One suggestion was 40lb fishing line. I didn't have any last night so I went to look at what was on the wood bobbins of my Lendrum, a different kind of cord which I snagged some of out of the repair kit and put it on the Majacraft. Better but not perfect. Today I bought 50lb fishing line - seemed to be better for a bit but then wasn't so back to the Lendrum line for now. I'm going to give Nathan a call at WW for more hints/tips. I was thinking of returning it but it's starting to break in now so it might just make a life here. I understand he has a great return policy if I'm not happy with it. Tonight I'm actually going to start spinning something other than junky test wool. This whole spinning thing is supposed to be relaxing, not stressful............well, unless you're spinning cotton!

Spinning and Woolee Winder

My new Woolee Winder awaits me at the post office tomorrow morning. I'm so excited. I should be able to fly spinning without having to move the yarn along the bobbin manually every once in a while. The big decision, which took weeks, was do I get it for the Majacraft Little Gem or for the Lendrum upright. I finally decided on the Majacraft - since that's even smaller and more portable than the Lendrum I end up spinning on it more often.

So, last night I decided to visit the roving stash (mine bought elsewhere, not all the hand-dyed and Ashland Bay I have for sale......although many of those were tempting, but I'll spin some up next project). I came up with 2 packages of this Colonial wool in the Purple Haze colorway from Great Balls of Fiber up in WA. I'd put a link but Sara doesn't have a website. She always has a booth at NWRSA and OFFF though.

I decided to try a technique Shelly of Butternut Woolens had examples of at OFFF this past fall. I pulled apart the roving at the color separations and will spin each separately. But since wispy bits of the adjoining colors came while pulling the roving apart there will be bits of those colors spun in with the main color. I should end up with 4 coordinating yarns when I'm done. Not sure what the end project will be - it's the spinning I'm excited about - will decide what it will be used for at a later time.
Would love to be spinning while watching the SuperBowl this afternoon but want to wait for the Woolee Winder so I'll probably knit instead. Family coming over today - potluck yummies. I'm making cheese fondue, chips/peach mango salsa/guacamole and chocolate fondue for dessert.