The WooLee Winder!

 It was so wonderful to have the WooLee Winder arrive ready to install on the Ashford Traveller spinning wheel that my dear friend Elsie gave me years ago.  She got me started spinning, something I had wanted to do since I read books like Caddie Woodlawn and the Laura Ingalls Wilder books.  As I learned to spin I had a difficult time spinning neatly and evenly onto the bobbin.  There are about 7 hoofs that hold the yarn.  Every so often you need to move the yarn from one hook to the next.  This works really well if you are totally focussed but that is not something I seem ever to be.

Well, when I heard of the WooLee Winder many years ago, I wanted one.  But it did not happen.  They cost almost $100 at that time and I had no money.  Now they are well over twice that much but, since I promised to spend no money for the better part of a month, Dear One humored me and bought it.  I call it my Valentine's present.  Well, that is a funny thing since we never give each other gifts on that day...or many other days either since we both feel we are gift enough.  Truly.

The Winder came and I have been having a great time with it!

This picture shows the WooLee Winder installed.  On the right you can see the little plastic cog/gear that  makes it work.  You can also see that the yarn I am plying is smoothly and evenly spinning onto the bobbin.

 

This is a homemade "Lazy Kate" that you need when you are plying two  (or more!) strands, or singles, into yarn.  I happened onto Abby Franquemont on YouTube.  She is a wonderful spinning teacher.  She offhandedly mentioned a plying ball. I had never heard of a plying ball.  At the time I was drawing the two strands off the lazy kate and making a real mess of the job since this homemade lazy kate has no tensioning device so the white yarn was flying off the bobbin and overtaking the brown yarn and thus making a huge rats nest.  When I heard "plying ball" I grasped it immediately, broke the yarn, and started creating a plying ball, though I did not start it over a coin as Abby did.

The plying ball works like a charm!  Wonderful.  So easy.

Here is plied yarn neatly and smoothly winding onto the bobbin.  If you notice the brown yarn in the lazy kate, you will notice how very UNeven that yarn wound onto the bobbin.

This new expensive toy is quite a blessing, based on a few days of use.  I am following the FLY (Finally Loving Yourself) Lady's suggestion which is to spend a small amount of time on projects then go on to the next, and thereby accomplish much more in a day. (Go to Baby Steps at the bottom left of the page if you go check her out.  She now does a lot of monetizing that she did not do in the beginning, but see the Baby Steps for sure!)  Even if you have to circle back around to get everything done you have in your heart to do each day.  I am spending 5-15 minutes a day spinning with the Winder.  When the plying is complete (I have two more bobbins each of the white and brown singles), I will then start spinning from scratch. I have PLENTY more fiber to spin!