I share a bit of my spinning history and assemble Bela, my Electric Eel Wheel by Dreaming Robots. We play some wheel games to get to know one another, and then I try spinning some fibre.
You can also buy your own EEW e-spinner by Dreaming Robots here!
11:02 Assembly
23:43 Wheel Games
24:19 - Wheel Game 1 (fibre-less)
31:02 - Wheel Game 2 (speed trials)
40:09 - Wheel Game 3 (tension time)
45:38 - Recap of the games
46:15 Spinning with fibre
52:44 First impressions
54:21 The orifice reducer
56:10 Ply-back test
56:48 Long draw
58:45 Thanks for watching!
Transcript
Greetings, my fellow keen crafters and thank you for joining me here on my Platypus Knitting channel. My name is Bobbie Olan and - oopsies, good start to the video. What was I saying? My name is Bobbie Olan and I am a knitter and fibre crafts explorer in Victoria, Australia.
So I should tell you first what is in this- going to be in this video. I am going to give you a bit of a history on my very, very short history of spinning and explain why I chose the wheel that I did. And then we're going to play some wheel games to get to know her. And then I will do a tiny bit of spinning on it as well.
Intro to my spinning so far
Greetings, my fellow keen crafters and thank you for joining me here on my Platypus Knitting channel. My name is Bobbie Olan and - oopsies, good start to the video. What was I saying? My name is Bobbie Olan and I am a knitter and fibre crafts explorer in Victoria, Australia.
So I should tell you first what is in this- going to be in this video. I am going to give you a bit of a history on my very, very short history of spinning and explain why I chose the wheel that I did. And then we're going to play some wheel games to get to know her. And then I will do a tiny bit of spinning on it as well.
This is my Turkish spindle here who I call Aldieb after a horse in the Wheel of Time series. So this is my first spinning tool. And it is a great little Turkish spindle. I did find it is on the small side which was great for beginning but it's a struggle to get more than 20g of yarn on here. And the more I spin, the more I like spinning, the more I wanted to spin and just doing 20g at a time is not enough. So I have been very keen to upgrade.
I did - earlier this year - take a beginner spinning class at the Hand Weavers and Spinners Guild of Victoria and I had been interested in it for a while before I signed up, but it is a beginners class for spinning on a spinning wheel. So I delayed signing up because I was just on the drop spindle and I knew that I wasn't going to be getting a spinning wheel - like a traditional you know big one with a big wheel that you make work with a foot pedal (called the treadle). I knew that I wasn't going to be getting one of those for a few years. And I wasn't really sure about investing in an e-spinner at that time either.
And eventually I did sign up and I thought it was really great. It was so much fun spinning on an actual wheel. It's a lot faster than the drop spindle and you can do a lot more. Both things are probably pretty obvious to anyone who looks at the different tools but it was just so much more thrilling to me to be able to produce yarn on that type of equipment.
Now one of the teachers did bring- did make an effort to bring a different wheel of her own to each class so that we could see different varieties out there. And for the most part, they were treadle wheels. But there was one day where she brought her Electric Eel Wheel and I had a go of it. And I enjoyed it a lot more than I had thought I would. For some reason I thought that not having the action of treadling was going to make the experience less enjoyable or something like that. I don't know why. The things that go through your head when you have no idea about the subject.
Anyway, I really enjoyed having a go on that. I really appreciate that Sarah was bringing in her wheels for us to have a look at and I have kind of been on the fence about getting myself an Electric Eel Wheel e-spinner, but that- that really did push me over the edge and I clearly decided to get one.
The lazy Kate and yarn counter
This here is Bela, a- she is named after another horse in the Wheel of Time series. And this is- these are all of the things that came in the box.
Before I actually go through all of those. I will just mention I did purchase a couple of other items. One of them is the lazy Kate system here and I'll just show it to you really quickly. I have already taken out and assembled and been using one part of it because it has a really neat handy feature for working with yarn. It is a lazy Kate for plying and I wasn't originally going to get it but then I saw someone in a video saying that you can actually use it as a yarn butler.
So again, it's 3d printed. And I am just screwing in... I don't know what this is called - the stick thing - into the base there. And the reason that I decided to get it is because it also comes with these stick things - stick thing, very technical term - these stick things that you just sit on top like so. And you can use it as a yarn butler, which I already have had a go of. Let me just show you here. This isn't the yarn that I was using it on and it's very tightly wound cake but if you put the yarn on there, then you can just work from it like so. So that is the yarn butler there. Now that I've assembled it I'm just keep it to the side. So it does also come with some tensioning bands in case you want to use it as a tensioned lazy Kate. And let's see... just bobbin stoppers. Hmm.
The other thing that I purchased from them, which I was really excited to get is their yarn counter. So this is a fairly new product of theirs. I haven't looked into this at all and I won't be going through it today but I just wanted to show you. It is this handy device so that when you have spun your handspun yarn, you can put it through this and get an idea of how long a length of yarn you have spun.
The EEW 6 (Bela's parts and pieces)
For the e-spinner itself, this is the main body of the e-spinner. It did- It was already sitting on the base but I'll just take it off. So this is the main thing here. It has a tension knob, a Z and S button which can also be used as a start and stop switch, a speed dial here, the pulley, at the back there's a plug. Obviously there's one for power but there's also one for this the foot pedal, which is something that I'm really happy is included in this. And the motor's just underneath. Very exciting. And this space is kind of just a hollow cavity so that if you buy a battery pack for it, the battery can sit neatly in there.
So you don't have to use it on the base. But I am going to- I am going to today to see how it goes. So I just set it over the screws and then pull it slightly so that is more secure.
There's a flyer here that has four sliding hooks on it. Put that down. It has this little packet here which has the instruction manual, a spare... this is- I think this is maybe called the brake band which is used to tension the bobbin, a couple of drive bands, a couple of orifice hooks, a few spare - what are these called? - bearings - whoopsies - a spring, an orifice reducer, some extra- again some extra rubber things. I guess they're just extra spare parts. I guess I'll figure out.
The other thing that's in here that I am super happy about is that they have these really good sturdy cards here that has a twist angle gauge - I guess you'd call it a gauge. It's got the widths- widths of yarn so that you can see what what weight of yarn you're spinning. And then it's got an inch ruler and a centimetres ruler on it as well. So really happy to have those. They do have a spare one that does just have the S and the Z and they've called that a share card. Because it's like one that you can give away to a friend. I don't currently have anyone that I can share that with so I am just going to hang on to it.
It does also come with 6 bobbins, so they are 3d printed bobbins and they already have the bearings attached to the disk part of them. So they come in two bags here. Oh, look at that. I'm a bit matching today. Purple, blue and white.
What else do we have here? So there is - I don't need that - power supply. Oh me... power cord. I knew when I ordered this that I would need an adapter because it is a US plug and I am in Australia. So I need an adapter for it. But I forgot to bring that with me. I'm just going to assemble as much as I can and then I'll have to go get it otherwise I can't spin.
[Fast forwarded talking]
Assembly
Out of this packet here I am going to take out one orifice hook. They do have magnets on the main body for the orifice hook but I have seen that they no longer recommend using that because there was a user whose yarn caught on it, which is very dangerous because while everything is spinning around it can just go flying. I'm gonna be bad and disregard that advice for now and I'm gonna stick the orifice hook there until I can find some better way to store it.
I do also need one drive band. And I think for starters I'm going to use it without the orifice reducer so I will leave that in there and I think that that is all I will need. Actually no. I believe... Let me just pull it out and put this aside so that I haven't got all of these things in the way.
The brake band there does have a spring on it. And I can feel that it's pretty highly tensioned. And from what I understand the spare spring that comes in it - like that's a lot easier to pull apart - and my understanding is that this is better for finer yarns and this one is better for thicker yarns. So I do actually want to- I do have a preference for spinning finer yarns if I can, I have to say, if I can. So I am going to try to detach that. So I have just loosened the tension knob there. And I am just now trying to take off the spring. It looks like it needs a bit of manoeuvring to come out. Oh, there we go. I was just trying to push it out and all- I just had to pull it out and that's all it was. So that is just knotted on there.
Actually while I- while I haven't got it in I'm just going to put them side by side and I can say that the wires on the finer spring are a lot thinner, and the the wires on the one that was attached for bulkier yarns is thicker. So they would be- that would be why they are stiffer. Weeeee. That can go a long way and this one can't go as far.
Let me- I'm actually not going to completely like remove the knot. Put that aside again. And then I can attach this finer spring - oopsies, I am dropping everything. This all, very kind of delicate... and I'm just trying to do it so that I am not poking the wire through the plies of this- of this cord and finding that trickier... There we go. It probably would have been easier if I had just completely undone everything and then slipped the thread through it like you're threading a needle but I didn't do that. So anyway. All right. That is now knotted on. And let me slip this back in. Yep, there we go. Okay. Tighten that a little bit. But I will probably have to adjust that again.
The last thing that I wanted to attach is the footswitch that comes in it. It's a nice little compact one which I like. It's nice looking. And... Had it backwards, I forgot. So that's the plug there for the flip switch. So we're going to peel off the thing and I'm going to plug... Oh, that is satisfying. Alright. So that's that I'm not going to completely undo this wire now because I- for starters I'm probably just going to sit this on the table and use it as a hand switch.
[Fast forwarded talking]
Alright, got my switch there where I can reach it. And now I just need to assemble the rest of it. Alright. So the bobbin disk things. They do have two different sides. So these are different types of disks. One is flat on the outside of it and the other one has like a- like a pulley disc type thing. So when you are putting this together, you do want to make sure that you have one of each of those. So you just screw it in. Can't do things left handed, so I'm just screwing that in.
Okay, now I do want to say as well that I will be numbering my bobbins so that when I'm spinning, I can keep track of what I have spun onto each bobbin. Just to help with organisation when I want to know what I'm working on so that I can take notes on what I want to ply together and all of that kind of thing. But I haven't decided how to do that yet because I don't necessarily want to take a Sharpie to these. But then it's also not the prettiest to put like a bit of masking tape on there to write on.
What do I have to do? Now I probably should have had another look at the instruction manual. But I believe... Do do-do do-do... I'm gonna do what I think. And then I'm going to double check the instruction manual to see that I've done it right.
Okay, so I am just going to slip this brake band off the back. I am going to slide the bobbin onto the flyer with the flat side towards me and the pulley bit is on the other side. I am going to slip the drive belt onto the first groove from the flyer. And let's see. If I hold this up, just loosen the tension a bit and slip the drive- the brake band on to the back of the bobbin, I think that's what you're meant to do. Something doesn't feel right. What have I done? Just loosen that a bit. And... Does that just sit? I think that just sits there like that. Got the brake band on and I'll just tighten it again just so it has a just a little bit of give. And then this drive band. I just have to pull it down. Oh my goodness. Oh, that has to stretch quite a bit. There we go. Oh, that is on a lot tighter than I would have expected.
Okay, that's set up. We're ready to do wheel games. I am going to go away and get the power adapter so that we can actually do wheel games, and double check that I've got this assembled correctly.
Okay, I'm back. The adapter is in use. Everything is plugged into the wall. So I'm just going to switch it on. Green lights flashed so it's on.
There is one thing that I had gotten wrong about the assembly. So in that packet with all of the odds and ends there were these extra bearings and I thought they were just being generous in case you know, one of the bearings that are in the bobbin got scuffed up. Nope, that is not what they are for. I am going to loosen the brake band, slip it off the pulley disc. And actually I was wondering - I did find it odd that was just gonna be sitting there because it is moving around. So actually, no. I'm gonna lift that up a little bit. It doesn't go far because the tension on the drive band is so tight, but this little bearing needs to actually slip on the end. And then that sits in there. Now that is not going to wriggle around in there and it should turn a lot better. So now I can slip this brake band back on and tighten it a little bit.
I think what I want to do is I'm going to tighten it so that the springs here just start to pull apart. So which way am I turning? Towards me. So they've just pulled apart a little bit. And that's the tension that I'm going to try to start with.
A couple of other things that I'll just quickly note as well. Before I turned it on at the wall, I did make sure that the speed dial is set to zero. And the other thing - just a quick little tiny little note - is that I am wearing an apron because I'd seen other spinners wear aprons or recommend wearing aprons. I don't really need one today because I'm not- I'm very minimally going to be working with actual fibre to go through the setup of this wheel, but I think it just helps prevent fluff from getting all over you.
I do eventually want to get myself or make myself a lap blanket. So what is recommended for the lap blanket is that you have one side that is dark and the other side that is light so that when you're working with different shades of fibre, you can use whichever side is going to give you the best contrast so that you can see what you're doing.
Wheel Games
Alright. So we are going to do some wheel games now. So I'm not sure exactly how these will work because these are games that I'm sort of adapting from... They're wheel games for a treadle wheel. I haven't seen - although I haven't looked too hard - I haven't seen that anyone has done these on an e-spinner. But I really want to try because they're supposed to help you get to know your wheel.
Wheel Game 1 (fibre-less)
So the first thing, the first couple of games that I'm going to play don't require any yarn on the bobbin. So first of all, I'm going to set it to S twist. It's already set to S twist so that's good. We'll start with that.
And I am going to put it on to the slowest speed just to see what that looks like. That's exciting that spinning. That's pretty slow. I'm not sure I'll ever use that. Pretty slow revolution. I mean, maybe for plying. I don't know. Obviously, nothing is shaking around because it's going so slow. So that's not an issue. Yeah, so that is the slowest on the S. I'm going to try using my foot switch. Haha, stopped straightaway, very nice. And turn the speed dial down.
I am now going to do it on the fastest speed for S. So let's turn this- Wooahhhh. Okay, you can see that that is moving around there. I can feel the wind off it, and it's travelling on the table. So that is incredibly fast though so I don't think I'm ever actually going to be using that speed.
Wow. That was fast. That was really really fast. If I ever do want to do it on that speed, I think I will have to screw it down properly onto something. But like I said, I do not see myself ever working that quickly. Oh my goodness. Oh, and for that one I just turned it off by turning the speed dial all the way down. So if I put it back up, just turn it down. That's another way to turn it off.
I do just want to see - so that was on number 6. I do just want to see what the 3 speed looks like. That looks like a reasonable speed and it's not vibrating and jumping around the table at that speed. I am now just curious to say what speed it will start doing that. So yeah, that is not moving on the table. I'm going to slowly turn it up to 4. Okay, it's on 4 now. And it is vibrating. It is moving very, very slowly on the table. So 3 seems to be a good speed. And if I need to work at faster speeds, I may need to secure it but who knows if I will be needing those speeds anyway.
Let's put it on- back on to 3. So the other way that you can stop it from spinning is to switch it from S to Z, or S to Z, basically. So if I switch that, that slows it down- that stops it as well.
So I'm going to put that back to zero and it is now on Z. And we are going to look at the slowest speed on Z. So now turn that to 1. Alright, fun times. Let's put it on the fastest speed on Z. Aaahhhhh. Interestingly - oh no, there it goes. I'm going to turn it down to 3. That's 3. That's nice. It didn't seem to be moving around on the table as much on the fastest speed for Z which was interesting. But you could hear it was still quite loud. It was vibrating a lot. And yeah, moving around on the table still.
So now I have it on 3. And again, it is not moving. It is not vibrating around and making a lot of noise. I'm going to slowly put it up to 4 and see if again that is the point where it starts. So it is vibrating more now. It hasn't really slid from its original position on the base a lot. So that's interesting. It seems to be a bit more stable on Z twist than it is on S twist.
I'm going to slowly crank it up to 5. Now I can really feel that that's vibrating now. So that's on 5 and it is still not moving around the table. So that's interesting. Just going to put it back to 6 again. And there it goes, it starts slowly moving.
Before I move on to the next game, I do just want to try something. I'm going to take it off the base because like I said it doesn't really need to be on the base to use it and want to see how it vibrates and moves while it's not on the base there. So taken that off. I am leaving it on Z and let's put it on to 6. It's a lot... It was a lot louder and it moved around on the table a lot more without the base there. It did just occur to me as well that if there is a battery here providing weight then that will probably help to stabilise it. Anyway, I'm going to put it back on since it was working better attached. Yep. Okie dokie.
So we're still on Z. Dial is set to zero. The rest of the games all involve yarn. Yay.
Wheel Game 2 (speed trials)
I am just using some- this ball of yarn - whoopsies - that I had on the lazy Kate. This is some old acrylic yarn that I kind of just - I don't make anything with it, obviously because it's still yarn - but it's- I kind of just keep it around for when I'm playing around with equipment. So once in a blue moon when I take out my knitting machine, I sort of calibrate it - in a way - using this yarn. So I'm just going to use it.
I'm going to just make sure that this hook - the one- the hook closest to me - is as far down as possible. As far down the arm as possible. Alright. Just gonna get a really long piece. How long did I make that? Not quite an arm span. What did I do? Arm to elbow - fingertip to elbow maybe. Anyway doesn't really matter. Just gonna make a knot on one end so that I've got this giant loop and then I am going to - do do-do do-do - just attach that on. Pull it up. That is still sliding around a bit. So I'm going to get one more - oops, this is hard. I'm going to pull one more strand of it at the back so I have a loop there like that. And then I'm just going to pull the rest of it through, just doubling up, pulling everything, making sure it's tight. Alright, that's better - whoopsies. Not bringing the bobbin with it when it comes around. So now I can get through one hook, the front hook, get my orifice hook, stick it in. Oopsies. Pull it out. I have made that just- kind of just long enough.
This time I'm just gonna stick to doing all of this on Z twist. You are... The- I guess the recommendation for the games is to do this with- in both directions as well, but I'm just going to do them on Z because that is how I'm going to make most of my original singles.
I'm just looping the end of that yarn through the leader. And what I'm going to do now is just go through all of the different speeds. And for now I am leaving the- the tension at- at the point that I had it where it had just pulled- it had just started opening up the little spring. So not a whole lot of tension. And I'm gonna go through each of the speeds on the speed dial and just feed the yarn onto it so that I'm getting a feel for how it feels. So it'll- that will help me get a sense of what the drafting speeds should be and what the uptake is like on each of the different speeds just at this tension.
Alright. Let's give that a go. Start with 1. So 1 is really really slow. I'm just letting some twist get in there and then - oh gosh, that feeds in so slowly. So slowly.
I have to say the lazy Kate - I feel like it needs to be clamped down because it keeps wanting to- it keeps pulling. So I'm- I'm actually... Turn it off. I'm gonna have to ditch the lazy Kate and figure out how to use that. So I'm just going to tuck this here and see how this works for me. Woo, cool. That's nice.
So it's not too bad. I am just- I'm drafting pretty slowly but it's not too slow. It's not super uncomfortable, actually. So let's turn that off. And I'm just going to move my hook a little bit. Let's put it on to 2. That's quite a difference and this feels like a pretty comfortable drafting speed actually. I mean, I can still obviously go slower. I can draft faster as well. Not let that much twist in. That feels like a pretty good speed to be working at.
Gonna put it at 3 - oopsies. Turn it on. Oooooh. Oh, forgot to move my hook. So if I don't hold the yarn and just let it pull it in, that's kind of fun. Anyway, that's not the point of this. And obviously I do feel like I'm having to draft quicker. Alright, turn it off. And move the hook again.
Four. That is just- that's starting to want to pull it out of my hand and I have to draft pretty fast. If- If I just hold it there for... Let's feed that in actually. So I can tell now that actually my take up needs to be higher at this speed because it isn't- it isn't really pulling in as fast as it needs to. So I'm not going to concern myself with that just yet. But let's turn it up. You can really tell that the uptake isn't - ooh - isn't as strong as it needs to be.
I think that- what happened? Let's turn this off. What's going on? Yeah, building up too much twist. It's made this huge giant curlicue. So really I can't work at the higher speeds without increasing my tension. What a lovely mess I've made. Let's just put this at the lowest - maybe 2 - and just let it feed in. It's not happy right now. There we go. We've gotten past all the curly bits and let's turn it down. Woo, okay, so I'm not even going to try 5 and 6 until I have messed with the uptake.
Wheel Game 3 (tension time)
I'm going to start it on speed 2 and I'm going to increase... Let's see, what will I do? I will do... a... a quarter turn. Yeah, that's a quarter turn speed- tension increase. And I will put this on 2. And I should probably actually move my hook as well. But we'll just do this for a little bit. That feels good. That amount of tension on it does feel nice. Let's turn that down.
We are on the next wheel game which is messing with the tension of it. And I am going to try this on... Let's say two and a half, because that seems like a good speed. I'm just going to move the hook a little bit and start filling up this valley that has appeared between where I've been winding the yarn on. So I'm leaving it at that quarter twist extra tension. It's on two and a half. And I'm just gonna try that again. So that feels good. It's not pulling the yarn out of my hand. And it's giving me time to draft so that's nice.
If I... I'm gonna try to do this on the fly - if I do a another quarter inch... Feed that on... It's still not pulling the yarn out of my hand, which is nice. I can feel that it is a stronger take up. But it's not yanking the yarn out. So I am going to just increase to 4 and see if I can now... Yeah, that's working a lot better. It's letting me draft and it's pulling in. So that's really good.
Let's stop it there. Move my hook down. And I'm gonna see if I can keep it at that tension and go to 5. Okay. It is starting to pull the yarn out of my hand a little bit. Yeah, it's pulling. But that's kind of better than- than it not feeding on and creating all of these tangles and curlicues. So I am going to see if I can go up to 6 with this tension. Yeah, it's really pulling it in. But I do actually still have time to draft. So that's great. That's nice. Woop, it's starting to get too many curly's. So... Yep, you can see - too much twist, not enough to take up.
So if I do want to work at that high speed - and let's just try it because I want to see what that's like. If I give that another quarter twist - I have lost track of how many quarter twists I have done - let's see if that is enough. So for now, I'm just going to do the slowest speed to feed some of that on. And actually, let's move the hook again.
And... Alright, let's try to go up to 6. And interestingly, with some yarn on there it doesn't- oh, there we go, it started vibrating. So I can- This is still actually workable. I do just have to draft quite quickly. So again, I don't see myself spinning at this speed anytime soon. But I can do it. I just have to have the tension right.
Alright. Let's turn that down. I am going to decrease the tension all the way back down. - so much curl - and increase it again to the point where it's just pulled on the spring a little bit. And I do think it will- it felt a lot better when there was a bit more tension than that. So now that I've got it to that point, I'm going to give it that quarter twist and work on it like that.
Recap of the games
That is actually all of the wheel games, I should say.
So we had speed- having it going without any yarn at the slowest and the fastest speeds on both S and Z twist just to see what the unit itself is doing.
And then I tried all of the speeds with yarn and just drafting it in to see how it would work - and I couldn't actually get up to the highest speeds because there wasn't enough uptake.
So the next wheel game and the last wheel game was playing around with the tension and seeing how that goes.
Spinning with fibre
So I am now going to break this yarn - this old yarn - put it back to the side. And I do just have a small amount of fibre here. So this is some cheap fibre that I bought a long time ago. It's combed top and it's not actually meant for spinning. They were selling it as roving to make a chunky blanket - which I had done with a different colour once I had tested this out - but I have over two kilos of this left. So I'm just kind of trying to spin it. I have a whole lot of this and I kind of just use it to try things out, like you saw on Aldieb here. So, I am just going to try spinning some of it on to Bela.
I am going to try drafting with it. It is not great quality - like I have said - but I'm going to try and let's see how I go. So I've got the tension. It's on Z. And let's get it up to 2 for now. So just gonna let it catch on.
So I have to say that this yarn that I used - the acrylic white yarn that I used to play my wheel games - it was untwisting to... It- It was untwisting the ply of it when I was playing the wheel games.
So I am a very new spinner and I am still learning what I have to do. And I don't really know exactly all of the right ways to fix the problems that I encounter. So I think that this has a little bit too much twist in it - or when I first started drafting this out, I could se that it was doing some little curlicues before it was feeding into the bobbin.
So I just had to stop and laugh and smile because this is so much fun. I'm really enjoying myself. I'm so excited to have my very own actual wheel. I feel like I'm gonna cry. I'm so happy. But you can see - oh, I'm just so happy. I'm so happy.
But you can see I am not drafting fast enough. Maybe you can see. Let me- Let me- I didn't know which way to turn it off. But I'm not sure if you can see - oh hello, lazy Kate to the rescue. Alright, let's see if this works. So, can you kind of see how these are starting to kink up? Hopefully I can zoom in close enough to show you that. Maybe I can pull some out and show you. But it's- the yarn is starting to kink up before I put it into- before it gets fed into- onto the bobbin. So clearly I am not drafting fast enough or else I have the wheel at too high - ooh, it broke. Haha.
What was I saying? Let me finish that thought. I had the wheel maybe at too high a speed for what I was drafting and I can see I've got curlicues up here as well. So I'm just going to pull some of this back on the hooks while I'm here. Let me move my hook just a little bit. Orifice hook, through, back on, make sure nothing's sticking up so that nothing catches. And... So that's still at two and a half. Turn it back on.
Hang on a sec. Did I turn it off before by flipping this switch to S? Haha, oh my goodness. That is why it came apart because it started spinning in the opposite direction. So it undid the twist that I put in. Okay, I'm going to not use that switch to turn it off because I am just going to confuse myself. I'm either going to use the speed dial or the foot switch. So let's try that again. Yes, and I can see on here that the twist that's in this- this bit of wool is an S twist.
Alright. Now I just have to wait. I put that down to 1 so that I can make sure of which way- I can see which way it was spinning. Just going to put it back up to two and a half and let some twist get back in there. And attach some new fibre. Mistakes are fun.
Okay, so I do have to say that although this yarn really isn't the best quality, it is a lot easier to draft it on a spinning wheel than it was on the spindle because I have both of my hands for drafting. There isn't one that's sort of holding everything up and trying to keep everything in balance and I- I am able to spin- I am able to draft pretty finely. I am still inconsistent of course, as a new spinner. There are bits that are thicker than other bits. There are bits that are thicker, there are bits that are thinner. But I am- I am able to draft pretty thin.
First impressions
Very first impressions of this wheel are: I love it. If I want to work at a really faster- at the really fast speeds above 3, then I will have to- I think I will have to mount it onto something. I'm quite comfortable spinning at the 3 or lower speed. And I am- I am really- I'm really enjoying this. It is... I'm making yarn! Spinning is just so wonderful. Yeah, it's- it's brilliant.
Thank you to Dreaming Robots for making this- this wonderful wheel. It has, you know, it's got all the features that you need. It's got, you know, the extra bits and pieces to swap things out for what you want to do. I really appreciate having the different springs to help tension for the different types of yarns that you may want to spin.
I primarily see myself spinning in order to knit with it because - like I said - I am a knitter. That is my one true love. So that's primarily what I'm going to be doing on this. So I'm not sure that I will ever switch it to the heavier spring again, but you never know.
The orifice reducer
I'll also- I did say that I haven't put the orifice reducer on here, which you would use for spinning finer yarns. I can see when I'm looking where it's feeding into the orifice that the yarn is like going back and forth. So I- it would be good to see if that orifice reducer makes much of a difference. Right now, I don't feel like it's impacting me greatly. I can feel it wibbling.
So actually, you know what, let's try it now. I'm going to put that orifice reducer in. So it's just slipped in there. And then I can take my yarn, put the hook in, hook it, hook the thread, pull it out. So the orifice reducer has just made the hole here a lot smaller so that the yarn isn't waving around so much. Reattach the yarn by letting the fibres catch on. And I mean, it's definitely not moving around as much. But again, I don't know that that's really impacting the quality that I'm spinning it or how easy it is to spin. So I probably will leave it on there because it is a little bit smoother. But yeah, I mean, that's really- that's really handy to have.
So I am really, really impressed with this- this wheel. My first wheel.
Ply-back test
Before I sign off I will just do one more thing. Let's stop this. I pull out a bit. Just butterflying a bit onto my fingers here. And I'm gonna get my hook so that I can do a ply-back test. So I've just let that go and looked at what it naturally spins to and that's pretty nice.
Long draw
I will try one thing. One- One more very last thing before I sign off. I'm going to try long draw. So this isn't- this is something that I don't have a lot of experience with. But I have quite enjoyed doing it when I do it. So I'm just going to put the speed a bit slower on to 2 and let's give it a try. So I am going to do a supported long draw. Because like I said it's not something that I have experience with but look at that. It's doing it. It's working. Feed that on.
So the thing for me with long draw is that I don't feel like I can control the thickness and it always has some thick and thin spots because I can't- I'm... Because I'm not drafting out each little bit of the fibre, I don't have as much control over the diameter of it. But I'm so pleased that that's working. I just want to see if I can do it with my other hand. And I'm not actually- I don't actually feel like I need to do it supported. I feel like I do need a little bit more uptake to do it. But it is working. It's gotten finer. Maybe it's just the speed at which I draw back. This is so much fun.
Thanks for watching!
Thank you for joining me. I hope that you enjoyed watching me stuff around with my brand new Electric Eel Wheel 6, my Bela. I love her. I think she's great. I'm so excited to do so much spinning with her. So much spinning. I'm just really excited to get really stuck into it.
I can see on the bobbin here - although I'm not sure if you can. Let me try and bring it up close. But you can- you can see the difference - how this bit of grey is a lot fluffier than this bit of grey. So that was my short draw. And that was my long draw. So you can see as well that this is more consistent than this. But I love it all. I love it. I love it. I think it's wonderful. I love that the bobbins are multicoloured as well. I think that's really fun.
I hope you've enjoyed going through the wheel games and getting to know Bela with me. If you have then I hope that you give me a thumbs up.
If you- If I have made you interested in this wheel at all, I do have an affiliate link below for purchasing your own. So if you purchase through my link, I will get a small commission on that. But whether or not you do want to buy, I hope that you have learned something from watching me fumble through and and I hope that it has piqued your interest in this wheel or in spinning or whatever.
So yeah, please please give me that thumbs up. Comment- Comment below your thoughts on what I have fumbled through today, what you think I could do better, what you would like to see in my spinning journey, and yeah. If you have any questions or want to see me try anything, let me know in the comments below. And that is all that I have for you. Thank you so much for joining me on this ride. I don't know how to sign off. I guess I'll just say - fare thee well.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Resources
Hand Weavers & Spinners Guild of Victoria