Welcome to the world, Zelda! or: my most recent adoption

This new arrival is like my birthday and Christmas all rolled into one.


A while back, I received a message from the lovely Squiished (have you read her blog or seen her Etsy shop?) - she had a wheel for me. Whilst clearing out clutter and selling off some existing wheels to make room for a newbie, she found the previous generation Ashford e-spinner gathering dust, and as luck would have it, she thought of me. As a wheel-less individual, that is, not a dusty one. I hope.

I totally jumped at the chance - you'd be crazy not to - and screamed yes yes yes at the top of my lungs graciously accepted her generous offer. After much discussion, the easiest way was to post it to my parents in London, and they'd send it on to Barcelona (with added Marmite and crumpets, of course).

The wait was absolute torture! But finally it arrived! I don't know why she's called Zelda. It seemed to fit, and now I can't think of any other name. So Zelda it is. She has a motor that turns the flyer, and a knob to speed her up or slow her down. She uses jumbo bobbins which is great for spinning big lots of fibre in one go. She's a bit heavy, but you can't argue with Queen that fat bottomed girls make the rocking world go round. I love her.

It's nice because I'm learning to draft with a wheel - it's not that different to drafting with a spindle, but enough of a change to take you out of your comfort zone. Until I get a "real" wheel, I get to practice my drafting without having to worry about treadling, and so far, it's going pretty well!




I also got another surprise with my parcel. I saw one of Squiished's posts on Instagram a while back, of some gorgeous handspun she'd made. When I said "the second one's mine", I didn't actually expect her to send it to me. But she did. And it's beyond incredible.

120 yards of a beautiful beige single - Shetland, silk, yak and mohair, with a little bit of sparkle. There's white locks, and flashes of blue throughout. Really, it's a mix of my two favourite colour groups: neutrals, and teal/mint/turquoise.