It always comes up. Always. At some point in the wheel VS spindle discussion. Uh, why do we always have wheel VS spindle discussions anyway? It's not a competition. Spindles are so much more than the gateway drug to wheels. They are totally cool spinning tools in their own right. But it always comes down to wheels are faster and have greater capacity than spindles. Eh. In many (but not all) circumstances, wheels can be faster. It's not likely I would have had the total amount of finished lace weight yarn to cast on my Print o'the Wave on Tuesday, if I hadn't had a wheel to spin it on when I remembered on Friday that I needed it. Capacity? Now that's another thing altogether.
Can my wheels hold more yarn than my spindle? Let's put it to the challenge.
Since I've already been working on some singles, we'll use those.
P-man walked by several times as I was working on this. "Will all of that fit?" He was a little skeptical.
Of course it will! It got a little messy toward the end but that was mostly because I spun a bit more to add to a bobbin that ran out early and then a bit more in a center pull ball to replace two of the bobbins that ran out separately. The spindle (.98 ounce, 3.5" whorl, 9" shaft below) could totally hold a few more ounces. I don't know how well my shoulder would hold up.
Though the singles--in thirds--would easily fit on my Joy's (standard Ashford) bobbins, there's no way the plied yarn would.
My Victoria's bobbins are about the same size as the Joy's so no help there. We need to go bigger. The old Ashford Scholar Holly's dad Marty gave us has HUGE bobbins. I've plied two (probably not quite full) Joy bobbins easily onto the Scholar (though the ratios--the bobbin ends are the whorls--aren't really comfortably high enough for lace so it requires treadling like a hamster)
So I wound my plied yarn onto the Scholar.
Which filled the bobbin to the whorl edges but still left visible space between the yarn and the flyer. Wugh. The question remains unanswered. For now.
Can my wheels hold more yarn than my spindle? Let's put it to the challenge.
Since I've already been working on some singles, we'll use those.
P-man walked by several times as I was working on this. "Will all of that fit?" He was a little skeptical.
Of course it will! It got a little messy toward the end but that was mostly because I spun a bit more to add to a bobbin that ran out early and then a bit more in a center pull ball to replace two of the bobbins that ran out separately. The spindle (.98 ounce, 3.5" whorl, 9" shaft below) could totally hold a few more ounces. I don't know how well my shoulder would hold up.
Though the singles--in thirds--would easily fit on my Joy's (standard Ashford) bobbins, there's no way the plied yarn would.
My Victoria's bobbins are about the same size as the Joy's so no help there. We need to go bigger. The old Ashford Scholar Holly's dad Marty gave us has HUGE bobbins. I've plied two (probably not quite full) Joy bobbins easily onto the Scholar (though the ratios--the bobbin ends are the whorls--aren't really comfortably high enough for lace so it requires treadling like a hamster)
So I wound my plied yarn onto the Scholar.
Which filled the bobbin to the whorl edges but still left visible space between the yarn and the flyer. Wugh. The question remains unanswered. For now.
4 comments:
It's gorgeous!! You have inspired me to get back to my spindles and wheels.
You are an master of both the mighty spindle and the wheel!!! Thank you again for showing both their worth!
Ummm, 9 oz? Holey moley! My shoulders would have fallen off. :-)
For a minute there I thought you had cast on another print'o the wave! I dug mine out of the closest yesterday and am plugging away.
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