I am so darn clever!

I finally got my act together and made the electric spinning wheel I've been thinking about for so long. I had an old flyer that originally came with my wheel. Then I bought an old sewing machine at St. Vincent DePaul for $5 and cannibalized it for the variable speed motor and foot pedal. The other parts, the wood and the Ashford bearings, cost about $12. So, I figure I've got about $17 invested in this baby. Check out what electronic spinners normally cost.

The unenlightened at my house -- that would be everyone but me -- say "doesn't an electric spinner defeat the whole purpose of hand spinning the yarn like in the old days?" Well, yes ... but I sometimes like to spin very fine yarns that require a lot of twist and, frankly, it takes too long to pedal the traditional wheel if you're going to do much very fine yarn. I COULD get a high speed flyer for my wheel -- but they cost $165, so you see my difficulty.

So far, I only see two problems with my $17 solution. First, the thick rubber band that I used for a drive band sheds rubber like crazy when you rev it up to high speeds. I'll probably have to invest $10 or so in a real drive band. Second, making the speed consistent is a problem since I'm just stepping on the foot pedal. I can keep a pretty uniform speed at one time, but if I go away and come back to it I'm not sure I would be running it at the same speed. I think I could solve that, though, by placing a shim under the pedal so it would only go one speed when the pedal is fully pressed.

In addition to my mechanical creation, I've started on a sock from the Knit Picks pattern. Kathryn is also doing this sock, but mine will be MUCH prettier (I hope she's reading this!). So far, it looks pretty cool. I hope it will fit me when it's done!