New Spinning Toy

 Many years ago my dear friend Elsie gave me an Ashford Traveller spinning wheel. I began spinning, not well, but spinning. I was given a number of raw fleeces which I learned how to process/skirt/scour and then sent them to a small mill at an alpaca farm in New Hampshire where the owner turned these fleeces into wonderful roving to spin. I still have much of that roving.

The last few Halloweens I have used that spinning wheel on our front porch in a witch hat spinning up yarn singles.  The very last Halloween I attempted Navajo plying on that  Ashford wheel and was unsuccessful. I really wanted that three-ply yarn but put away the wheel while watching more videos on how to Navajo ply.

Over the winter I saw lots of videos on plying on an Ashford E-Spinner 3 as well as on an Electric Eel Spinner. The electric Eel was not in stock and was not going to be available until May but I had every intention of getting one. I started putting half of my retirement income  in my savings account and knew I would have enough money for the EE6. 

Well, after watching lots of Ashford videos I decided not to go with the plastic 3-D printed EE6, especially since the real wheel was Ashford and the two rigid heddle looms were Ashford and I loved their quality…so I decided to go with the much more expensive Ashford E-Spinner 3. 

When I learned that Andrea Mowry was hosting a 100 days of long-draw spinning starting April first I decided to jump on it. I did have the savings but it would totally wipe that money out so I used our credit card with intention to pay the money into our family account over the next few months. 

May I say that I have the most generous kind husband!  When the e-spinner arrive, he said to me, “Happy Birthday.”  Is that the best, or what?!!

Here is a rather poor photo but this is the Ashford E-Spinner 3 with my first long draw day’s work.

This is my first plied yarn on the Ashford. I used the singles I had spun last fall and which I was not successful plying at that time. It is ghastly yarn but I am totally thrilled with it.  I expect to continue to make yarn every day.