Topic: Handspinning
I've been spinning since 1992. I have spun on Louets and Ashfords, and have tried out many other wheels, but the day I sat down in front of a Norman Hall Traditional wheel I felt transformed. Maybe it was the wood, or maybe it was the flyer on the right, or maybe it was the HUGE (to me) drive wheel or maybe it was the smooth flow of fiber as it could RACE through my fingers. Whatever the reason, I had to have one. Mr. Hall had a waiting list, and I got on it. Luckily my friend Carolyn who is WAY ahead of me in her fiber tool acquisitions, decided to drop out of the running and made me (happily!) her slave for life by offering me her spot. So, my wait was three years instead of five.
My oak wheel arrived last fall and I promised myself I would spin a whole sweater's worth of yarn on it before I began to even THINK I understood what it could do. As good luck would have it, my friend Shelia-with-no-blog (what's up with that?!) also acquired a walnut Norman Hall Traditional and we have been each other's support group as we get to know the wheels.
I can spin for about 5 hours on this wheel before I get tired. I am very, very pleased to have this in my living room. I am almost 1/3 of the way through the sweater's worth of yarn project and I am beginning to get a good feel for what it can do. For instance, I know a very full drum carded batt of 2.2 oz. can be spun onto a single bobbin, and that 3 of these bobbins can be plied together to make a 6.6 oz. skein of yarn that fills a bobbin just about completely. This is very useful information for me as I plan a project to have the biggest unbroken skeins possible.
