A Trip to Purlescence

[lwood]

countgeiger and I ambled down to Purlescence just to look at spinning wheels. He said he'd lay a goodly sum towards one for my birthday, and I thought...

Oh, good--I'll get a wee portable one and spook people in airports with thoroughly innocent activity, e.g. a Louet Victoria. Or perhaps some other aimed-at-newbies wheels, like the Ashford Joy. Oh, hey, the Schacht Ladybug was just reviewed at Knitty, maybe that! At any rate, insofar as one can ever call a spinning wheel a sensible purchase when one is not, say, Amish, then I shall be Sensible. I shall most assuredly not get one of those fairytale, Sleeping Beauty sorts of wheels. A Schacht-Reeves wheel is gorgeous, but costs more than my rent. Get thee behind me, ye Ashford Elizabeth! We shall buy Small! We shall be (relatively!) Inexpensive!

But I shall also heed all the wise women who said, "go to a store with many, that you may treadle with your very own feet. The wheel chooses the spinner!" Sounds a bit Harry Potter, but in a way I actually agree with. Bring on the wheels!

So I went. I test-treadled every wheel above as well as the Louet Julia--yes, including the 30" Schact-Reeves Saxony, that is in the shop window with big signs saying "don't touch!". The store owner strokes it lovingly and calls it "Precious".

My husband and I are engineers, and my father-in-law is a retired ironworker with a strong second in woodwork--craftsmanship was a strong factor in our decision, but dangit I'd brought him to help make sure I didn't buy anything too expensive! Still, when we saw the second most expensive wheel, he was willing to double his contribution to this folly to encourage Sound Engineering and Good Craftsmanship.

We didn't walk out having bought the Precious, but we did buy another, whose treadling was smooth, whose quiet purr enchanted me, whose eager spirit wanted dearly to occupy a corner of my home...

The Schacht Matchless:

It's a little large to be called "portable", but as it comes with a shoulder strap, one may deem it "luggable". Also, we didn't exactly "purchase"--we laid down half and will lay the other half down when it arrives in a month, because apparently it has to be made, a prospect which makes me a bit weak in the knees.

Whee! Also--GAH!

I also picked up the Yarn Harlot's latest, Cat Bordhi's other Moebius book, some wool wash, and a replacement skein of Haida. Y'know, as long as I was there and freshly paid and delighted in a store where the owner knew me by name.

By the by, they're angling to have a booth at Pantheacon. *grin*

(holycrapIboughtaspinningwheel)

-- Lorrie

Comments

Sweet!

[shantak.livejournal.com]

My hands no longer itch to spin but that may only be due to my internal rearranging and may return when things settle.

Congrats and may it bring you years of joy.

-SMK

Re: Sweet!

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Thank you--we'll see what happens when it finally gets here...

-- Lorrie

[bellacrow.livejournal.com]

omg *thud* it's gorgeous! I cant wait to come visit and watch spinning on hir!

[lwood.livejournal.com]

If it's Not Hard, I might even let you play on it. 8-)

I'll post when I actually have it, of course...

-- Lorrie

*SQUEE!*

[faeryl.livejournal.com]

Wow, you're going to enjoy that beauty! :-) Schacht spinning wheels are some of the best out there(love their Ladybugs).

Re: *SQUEE!*

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Squee!

-- Lorrie

[maiagirl.livejournal.com]

OMG!!! Pretty! Want!

I totally want to learn to spin. Just sayin.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Well, now, it does happen that wolfs_daugher has been spinning for more years than I've actually been alive, and thorn_and_calyx spins so fine you could use 'em for crosshairs.

Whereas with me, it'd be the blind leading the blind. ;)

-- Lorrie

[knittingwoman.livejournal.com]

so does this mean that one day you will have beautiful and *magical* homespun yarn for sale;)

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Heh!

I've sold exactly one handcrafted item--a beaded beret because someone saw mine and insisted I make one and sell it to her.

The yarn was from my stash, and the beads a few dollars, so I sold the whole thing for $35, IIRC. If I had had to buy a nice handpainted yarn on top of that (say, $20), it would have been $60 for a hat, using the thumb rule I've heard that one should charge at least thrice materials and not think too much about what wage that would earn out to.

Ain't nobody paying $60 for a beret--or $300-500 for a sweater.

So I give them away, or ask for no more than materials costs. Anything more and either it's such a pittance for my time that I feel cheap, or it's even something near minimum wage for my time and the buyer feels extorted. My compromise, however, means that the time is a gift, which in heathenry comes with a lot of subtext and social weight.

Historically, though, this is often the case with handicrafts: it brings in a bit of money on the side, but not enough to live on by itself.

-- Lorrie

[abhasana.livejournal.com]

As soon as I get out of school, I am absolutely getting a spinning wheel. I've wanted one for years now.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

faeryl finds one on our local Craig's List roughly every week, all used, but usually with a sad paragraph or two of "bought and never used".

I'm still croggled at something that's this many monies and yet has no blinking lights on it whatsoever.

-- Lorrie

[remotesensing.livejournal.com]

That's not a problem unique to yarn-related hobbies and handicrafts --- the looks I get when I drag out some of my tools are priceless.

( "You spent *how* much? On something you.... just use once in while when building radios?" )

[lwood.livejournal.com]

I reckon it's a time when a hobby turns into a serious avocation--after flirting with fiber arts for years, suddenly here I am, investing in capital assets. o.O

-- Lorrie

[abhasana.livejournal.com]

I'm sure if you really wanted to, you could install blinking lights on it.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

'strewth, but I think it'd be an incompatible aesthetic.

Although...something on the spokes to make pretty blinky swirlies...

AHGAHDNO.

-- Lorrie (pimp my wheel!)

[wednesday]

SO. MUCH. ENVY.

(This weekend, I took the new top whorl drop thingabob to a Halloween party and kept my hands busy making craptacular yarn out of Rambouillet in highlighter colours. Eric declared that I would be needing a wheel soon, wouldn't I? AAAAA. MUST NOT AAAA BUT BUT AA.)

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Well, wouldn't a wheel be easier on your sundry bodythings? It would seem too, but I am not even an egg at this.

*Googletangents for a few minutes* Oh! It's kinda like merino, but French! Also, the Indian (as in India) word for spinning wheel is etymologically related to chakra (well, y'know, according to Wikipedia), so, uh, that's all tangled up and w[y|ei]rd then.

-- Lorrie

[keristor.livejournal.com]

"it has to be made"

In my book this is very good, it implies that it will be crafted right from the beginning (OK, they may not actually fell the trees and smelt the iron themselves, but as close as is reasonable). I never mind waiting for things which are made to order, they feel as though they have had better care.

Have fun! I know several people who like spinning, my mother said it was one of the best things she knew for relaxing.

[ivy]

Yeah, I've found it so also. Very meditative.

Damnit, lwood, now you are making me want to get a spinning wheel. (I don't knit, but I know people who do that could use whatever I made....)

[lwood.livejournal.com]

It would be a symbiotic relationship, yis. And just think, they do make wheels what break down into backpacks; you could break one out at DEFCON and freak out hordes of boygeeks.

-- Lorrie

[lwood.livejournal.com]

In my book this is very good, it implies that it will be crafted right from the beginning (OK, they may not actually fell the trees and smelt the iron themselves, but as close as is reasonable). I never mind waiting for things which are made to order, they feel as though they have had better care.

Yes, yes, YES! Exactly so!

Have fun! I know several people who like spinning, my mother said it was one of the best things she knew for relaxing.

Knitting is also good for this--depending on the project, it can be soothingly meditative or a strenuous exercise in intellectual rigor.

-- Lorrie

[keristor.livejournal.com]

To me knitting is not good, if I'm expected to do it. Crochet I understand, but knitting is a Mystery and I don't really believe in it *g*. Spinning and weaving I also understand (although the process of working out how to produce specific patterns using tablet weaving is an art I don't know, I think it involves maths which cause my mind to explode).

[lwood.livejournal.com]

I've done card/tablet weaving, and I'm tolerably good at it once I put in the million years necessary to get the warp set up (nnnrgh). Like you, dpaxson declares this is obviously a mathy thing. :P

-- Lorrie

[ivy]

Oh, that's awesome! I can't wait to see what you do with it.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Eventually, after false starts and bird's nests, I hope to make string. *grin*

-- Lorrie