A Not Quite So Sad Affair

Remember this little gal from four months ago? Remember when she came home with me and I struggled spinning on her? Well, after four months with my Louet Julia, I found myself wondering why I wasn't taking it or my Fricke to work so I could spin in between clients.

The answer was - it was too troublesome to carry either one of them. I hate going up and down the stairs leading to my studio office, and in the dark (by the time I'm done with work, I'm the only one left in the building), I don't necessarily want to take a few trips back and forth to my car to deposit laundry and then the wheel (or vice versa).

So the past few days I've been mulling over my decision to take the Julia and I wondered if my decision to forego the Joy was really due to "operator error". Remember, it was my first time ever to spin on a wheel and I hunched over that Joy peering into the orifice like I was expecting straw spun into gold (and ended up disappointed).

At the spinning guild meeting today, someone returned a rented Joy to Nancy and she asked me if I wanted to take it home and try it out. There also was no more room in her van for all her stuff - so it was a good deal.

I will post my photos tomorrow of the yarn I spun tonight - and boy, did it feel great to spin so fine and so consistently. Obviously back then, it was operator error and now I was loving the Joy. It's like I'm having an affair, neglecting my Julia for the Joy. But such is life.

Really, with all the window shopping I've been doing on spinning wheels, I need to have my head examined. I want so many wheels - Ashford country spinner, Spinolution's Mach 1 - and not only that, I also want a drum carder and more roving (as if I have room in my house and garage for all of this). So last night I decided that I was going to settle for 2 wheels.

Definitely I will keep my Fricke ST-160, and simply buy the bulky flyer and bobbin for it to deal with bulky yarns. The Fricke will also be my home wheel, and the wheel I will be plying with.

The second wheel (which can then travel with me) will have to be...the Joy.

I can take her with me to work without any hassles, not worry about flyers getting caught on the car ceiling every time I load or unload it, or have the Julia's wheel catch my fingers as I carry it around (it doesn't have a carry handle of any sort). I'm kinda sad to let her go, but such uncertain financial times tell me to do what I need to do. I already paid for the wheel, and all I need to do exchange it with what works.

And the Joy sure does!