Its Here, its here its heeere!

Yipee! On Saturday the mail carrier drove down our driveway to deliver a box and it was addressed to me! (I love getting packages!) I checked the shipping label, and sure enough, this package came from Washington. My long awaited and anticipated Pocket Wheel has arrived. 


To my additional delight, the bobbins were wrapped in flannel, which I can use during the wood finishing process, and wool fiber, perfect for a test run after assembling the wheel.

I think the design is very clever, and I had the whole thing assembled in about 15 minutes. Of course, once assembled an immediate test drive was in order.

 Spinner's view (that gallon size plastic bag contains the fiber that was wrapped around the bobbins for shipping. I love that some test drive material was included)













Size comparison; While the PW is much smaller, the bobbins are bigger!

This wheel is made of maple, and its very light right now because it is unfinished. I'm still working on finishing (doh!) my wall clock and once that project is complete I'll finish the PW. I think I'll finish a little test section first, because just maybe I'll want to darken the finish a bit more. In the meantime I'm going to spin on a bare naked wood wheel. Oo-la-la!

Of course I've aready taken a test spin; at first it the treadle motion felt curious, it really does feel different than the Ashford treadles. But in a few minutes I'd gotten the hang of the directness of the treadling and adjusting the tension and drive ratio. Having the orifice down below my knees was different too, everything felt so close! But again, after a few more minutes I could relax and actually lean back into the sofa cushions while spinning. In this picture I'm test driving and Ashford bobbin on the PW, btw, the fiber on the bobbin is that lovely Shetland I mentioned earlier. Here's another difference; on my Traveler, I remove the bobbin from the flyer, but on the PW, I remove the flyer from the bobbin.

The PW is small and light weight, but it doesn't fold for travel. Instead, the axle fits through the treadles, body and rear foot piece. Remove the axle (no tools required) and those pieces come apart, making it easy to pack the PW flat. Unless I need to pack it into a suitcase, most of the time I'm sure I'll just carry it by the built in handle.

Here in normally parched Southern California we are bracing for nearly a week of wet weather, starting sometime tonight. What a perfect time to spend indoors, playing with my new toy.

Just a few more pictures;