Wheel Down!

I was spinning quite a bit this weekend and mostly having a fantastic time with it.  Have I mentioned yet that I learned to long draw?

It's really good.  I foresee spinning that results in yarn that results in sweaters in my future.

But when I was winding off a bobbin for storage, it kept catching, changing speeds a bit and snapping the single - which is a drag and seriously annoying, but also kinda weird.  Haven't had this kind of trouble since very early in my relationship with both spinning and the bobbin winder, and admittedly long draw is new...but the first bobbin went great.  So what the fuck? And then I noticed this flapping around the whorl:

Which would be two of the three plies of the drive band coiling loose around their remaining friend.

I had company this weekend and my whimpers drew her attention.   "So make a new one."

"I don't have any string."

You. Don't. Have. Any. String.

Ok fine, you stroppy cow, I have lots and lots of string, but none of the tight cotton cord that would work for this.  You want I should use merino?

"Well, what do you make drive bands out of?"

"It's never come up."

Which lead to more mocking and hilarity. (Only in this very particular social circle would never having tied a drive band be a cause for amused derision.  We are odd, by the way.)  But truthfully - I have a Victoria and a Suzie, both of which use those stretchy bands, and I have two production wheels, one of which spent a considerable amount of time in rehab this year - and could use a new band, now that I think of it.  And this one, which I have owned for exactly a year and which has just worn out its first band.

So I went into the kitchen and got my coat and bag - still wearing the tank top and sweatpants that are de riguer for Sunday afternoon spinning - and stood by the couch.

"Get up"

"wha....?"

"We're going to the store."

"My tea is hot."

"You can make more."

Pause.

"Can I put on real pants?"

And she looked at me.  "I know, only if I do it fast."

She paused to ask me a question as she went upstairs and I looked at her and said only "Wheel DOWN!"

So now I have a drive band and a spool of suitable cord for future incidents, which is a comfort, it is.  And some singles I am pretty pleased with.

I can't believe she wanted to drink tea at a time like that.  Honestly.  (I did have my vengeance though.  She showed me a pattern she was taken with - it's very good - and I had unbeatably better yarn in the stash for it.  It was sweet.)

I did discover something fun this weekend - buy six bottles of wine (see, not a completely awful hostess) and Wegman's gives you this cute little shopping tote.  Clearly a sign I need to drink more.  Because I need to reuse this.  It's the right thing to do.

Comments

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[Jessica]

You have officially made me fear the time when I will need to fix a drive band now that I have a wheel that also requires one of this kind.

Good tip on the Wegman's tote! I'll have to plan accordingly on our next trip over there. ;)

[Tara]

That looks like an AWESOME knitting bag - room for implements, and multiple small projects, or pockets for dividing yarn for colorwork...

:-)

[Phiala]

Oh, sorry, I'm a spaz, and obviously haven't had enough coffee yet this morning! There's a second page of comments.

Feel free to delete this and the previous idiocity!

[Phiala]

Hey! Did you delete my almost-first comment about small children, and drive bands, and the happiness of being a weaver so I always have warp yarn around for random repairs?

Did I offend in some way?

[Charlene]

Befriend a weaver, key word: carpet warp. It doesn't stretch, it comes in colours (though the size of the spool dictates that you'll be blessed with say, neon green drive bands for a long, LOOOONG time) and it's cheap (especially if you get it with the loom that you bought when you thought you might like to be a weaver, but then, after six years of the damn loom LOOKING at you, realized that you would not).

[julia fc]

odd, yep. indeed we are.
Tote also handy for carrying wine up from cellar.
Where some yarn also lives in quarantine. Next to the vouvray.
Did I mention we are odd?

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[Jenny]

You can buy wine at Wegmans? I hate PA.

[Lizbon]

whoops, that should have read "being able to buy MORE wine than one can hold..."

[Lizbon]

I envy that tote. Also being able to buy wine than one can hold in one's arms at one time. Well, not really. If I had six bottles of wine, I'd drink them.

[Spinning Fishwife]

Did you know, in the old days one of the first things newbie spinners learned to spin was yarn for new drive bands.

A bit of cotton yarn works a treat too. Rowan Cotton Glace especially. Failing that, parcel string.

[Mel]

Clearly we need Wegman's here in Maine.

[Specs]

Hang on -- your Wegman's sells wine? Here in south Jersey we can only get wine at liquor stores (as if it's immoral to sell it beside proper food and drink). I am so jealous.

[claudia]

Stroppy cow! Thanks for that.

[Carrie]

That bag looks perfect for colorwork-on-the-go.

[The Other Kristen]

You crack me up. Thank you.

Ah, to live in a state where the grocery stores can sell wine. Of course, with the all the song and dance I have to go through at Wegman's just to prove that I'm old enough to buy beer (I'm 39, folks, and I look it), it's probably just as well that I buy my wine and booze at the normal, friendly liquor store across the road.

Here's to happy drive bands!

[--Deb]

Yeah, really, hot tea? What kind of excuse is that? And, also, that tote bag is SO cool. I wish there were a Wegman's closer to us . . . the only one I know of is near Bridgewater and that's not exactly around the corner....

[Beth S.]

I also use a stretchy drive band, but I have yet to find a really satisfactory substitute for the cotton brake band that came with my wheel (and which wore out after about six months.) None of the twine in the house is quite the right diameter. I'm using nylon-blend sock yarn scraps right now, and it's okay, but not great.

Love the wine tote! :-) Damn, that's clever.

[Marcy]

"'My teat is hot.'"???? Puh-leeze. I'm glad you taught the woman some sense of the proper order of things.

[Laurie]

You have Wegman's? *serious envy*

I'm not going to admit (too) publicly how long my driveband was in shreds around my whorls before I got the stretchy one done. They end up wrapping the shreds around each other, getting stronger, and stronger, wonkier and wonkier, until you get used to the *thwap*thwap*thwap*s.

Then you give up and replace it.

[Wanda]

Of course, if you have a "wheel down", it must be fixed, post haste! I agree, you must drink more often to get the nifty bag. That's really nice!

[seizuresalad]

That tote! Awesome!

I just got my Lendrum folding wheel this weekend, and I sat mesmerized for hours and hours, spinning away. The instant bio-feedback thing that happens when you are learning, feeling how the fibre wants to be spun, getting better and better, holy cow. Only problem seems to be the lack of knitting...

I am still confused about long draw vs. not-long-draw, and woolen vs worsted - I think I naturally do a combination of both somehow. How do you tell?

[Anne]

You're making me want to dig into my Spinners Hill stuff too! (Though it has shavings in it, probably that I picked up in the barn in Rhinebeck.)

I wonder if kitchen cotton yarn would work for a drive band...

Seriously, Wegman's in your nabe sells wine?? Did you have to cross the state line?