I acquired my first wheel about 5 years after I started spinning. I was exclusively a spindle-spinner before that. A friend loaned me one of her wheels for a few months and after I returned it, I decided to get my own. I've written about that loaner wheel -- I spun a few pounds of Romney on it that winter and eventually knit a sweater from the yarn. Many years later I asked if I could buy the wheel from my friend, but alas, it had already been sold to someone else. I don't know what it was. I saw it once, maybe in the New Zealand spinning wheel site, but I can't remember what it was. It was similar to an Ashford but it wasn't an Ashford.
The first wheel I bought was a Fricke S-160. It's one of the very few wheels I purchased as a new wheel (as opposed to a used wheel). I absolutely hated the delta orifice but luckily was able to get a more traditional flyer where the yarn goes through an orifice. I've spun so much on it that the edge of the orifice hole is shiny and thin where the yarn rubs against it.
I still have and use that wheel, many many miles of spun yarn later. It's my main travel wheel when I do demos or hang out with spinners and knitters. It's not really designed to be a good travel wheel since it doesn't fold up and it's not particularly streamlined nor lightweight. However, it is sturdy and utilitarian and doesn't have a lot of little things that can get scratched or broken or knocked out of alignment. It's also one of my main plying wheels since the bobbins are a pretty decent size.
Some of the original plastic bits have needed replacing, namely the driveband (a stretchy band) and the footman connectors (plastic tubing of some sort). I was able to get a new driveband from the Frickes. When it was time to replace the footman connectors, I found out that the Frickes had retired! Oh, sad day... But it turned out that Ashford makes a 6mm cord that works well as a substitute, yay!
That's the downside of modern materials, and in particular, polymers. They get brittle with age. Maybe someday I'll have to replace these with a string for the driveband and leather for the footman connectors. But hopefully I'll be able to find proper polymer replacement parts for a good long time.
The Fricke wheel has a nice range of ratios. I almost always use the faster ones. The bobbins are Majacraft plastic bobbins that hold roughly 4 oz. The wheel is a simple upright style, single treadle, scotch tension. The treadle is large enough to treadle with either foot or both feet. It has a heel-toe action that means I need to find the sweet spot.
I've seen some weird Franken-wheels over the years that use bits from the Fricke wheel as one of the component wheels. I have no idea why people do that -- did something on the Fricke break so they re-used its pieces? Did they not like the Fricke for some reason? I have no idea how well the Franken-wheels spun. I hope for the sake of their owners that they spun reasonably well.
I know the Frickes came out with a double-treadle version as well as folding versions. But I have the simple, bottom-line, old-school plain wheel.
Hmm, I don't know if I have a picture of my Fricke. Maybe I'll add a pic to this post later. There are plenty online if anyone cares. But I can share a few photos of yarn I've spun.
The above pic is some 2-ply alpaca that I spun at a demo.
Some BFL handpaint, left as singles yarn. I dyed it myself (or a family member dyed it) rather than buying the roving already dyed.
Some white 2-ply merino/dorset that was plied on the Fricke.
A cowl that I knit with Fricke-spun handspun yarn. I later ended up unraveling it because the proportions ended up not quite right for my needs. I'm glad I took a photo, though, since the fabric is very cute and I like how the pattern stitch interacts with the yarn.
And here's the yarn that made the cowl. I'm pretty sure I dyed the roving. I'm not 100% sure what the fiber was -- my original notes said BFL but when I spun it up it behaved more like some Romney roving I had at the time.
And so on.
This post started as some general musings on wheels. But it ended up being about just one wheel, really, with only a little bit about the loaner wheel that preceded it. I guess I've started a new series... I have many musings to go.
Not that it's relevant, but I'm still making progress on my doily and I'm nearly done with my travel shawl/scarf. I don't think there's enough yarn to finish the last sets of eyelets as the pattern calls for, but it'll be fine either way.
