It took a couple of weeks to arrive but my birthday present to myself has finally arrived!
I took my time 'un-boxing' (as its now called) and savoured the event. Everything was packed in Louet's usual professional manner, with very sturdy boxes, and clear instructions.
She has a nifty carry bag. It has handles or can be worn as a back pack. I found a video on Youtube on how to open her up and set her up correctly. Its amazing how light and compact she is. When closed up and tucked into her bag, she can fit into the overhead bins on a flight. She weighs only six and a half pounds.
Its hard to convey her size in these pictures, but she's tiny! She a fully functioning wheel and has three ratios (1:6, 1:8.5, 1:13), has a traveling kate and three bobbins. She just has big feet for a little lady.
She's made from beech and in time will mellow to a light golden colour.
I'm so looking forward taking her along for spinning days with the girls at the cottage. We also have the Vancouver Island Fibre Fest being held here on May 5-7th. She will be out on the town quite a bit.
Its a different feel to my other wheel and so I have been spending some time playing with the new baby and adjusting the scotch tension and finding my groove.
I'm spinning a very pretty merino silk blend in a pink red..... which is more red than pink. I have quite a bit of it on hand so I'm glad I like it! I found I wanted to hunch forward over the wheel so I purposely positioned myself back into the chair and didn't worry where the orifice is located and focused on my hands and the drafting.
Next thing I knew, the bobbin was filling in nicely!
Its hard to convey the overall size with no reference points, so I thought of my old fashioned yard stick. So here's the measurements: it comes to 23 inches to the top where the stick is and then the flyer and orifice angles upwards from there.
Here's the depth of the wheel and as I mentioned, she's all feet! Cute ones too.
My other wheel? Its all set up and we sat outside today and watched ducks on the pond. It was lovely!
Tomorrow another spring storm is rolling through with high winds, so that will be a weaving day.
