Spindling away at Purl City Yarns a couple of weeks ago, Kate, Vikki and I were talking spinning. I said I wasn't planning on getting a spinning wheel as I had neither the room nor the money for one. Somebody said 'yeah, but wheels pay for themselves'. Of course that comment lodged in my head and I started to think about the possibilities.

Last weekend I listed a load of stuff on eBay which I hadn't used since I moved 9 months ago, which gave me enough extra cash to afford to take a little road trip over to Wingham Wool Works. I say 'road trip', I actually mean walk/rail trip - train from Manchester to Sheffield, Sheffield to Elsecar, then a Sunday morning walk over to Wentworth, the village where Wingham's is based. If you haven't been to Wingham's, I'll explain the setup. The main shop is barn-like and filled with all sorts of fibre, dyes, bobbins, carders, books and so on. Ot the back door of the shop are three sheds; one for natural wools, one for dyed merino and the other for merino/silk blends and other mixes. If it's wheels you're interested in, you're guided into the garden, past the chicken coop and into the Ashford greenhouse or the Kromski shed.

Alan took me through the wheels and we spent some time getting me used to the Ashford Joy which I felt would be the most suitable for my needs (ie. compact, easy to store and transport but with a fairly wide range of ratios and accessories). Being a complete beginner where wheel spinning is concerned, I was mostly rubbish in the practice session, but it was enough to reassure me that this was something I want to be better at.



Having picked out my wheel, I had a really good browse through the sheds, choosing a few different fibres to get started with. Shetland Mixed and Shetland Humbug blends, teal and pistachio Merino (which I have ambitions of self-striping at some point in the future!) and superwash Merino. I'm also interested in non-animal fibres, so I picked up some bamboo and cotton, plus sample packs of milk protein, banana and crab fibre. Oh, and a niddy noddy.



The assembly process on the Joy is very straightforward, just a case of cutting the brake band to size and twisting a few hooks in, so it was ready spin on in a few minutes. Gave it a test run with some of the fibre left over from my original drop spindling lesson. It was pre-drafted, so fairly easy to get it pretty thin. The were definitely some sections more heavily twisted than others, but not bad for a first attempt.