I caught a bug

And for once the symptomes not include coughs and sore throat... (interestingly enough this season I haven't been ill, despite of all the stress and depression-Go figure, but that is a whole other story).

Anyway, I am having an affair. With my bug, who incidentally pretty fast acquired the name "Katica" which is a diminutive of Kathrine, and also the Hungarian name of the Ladybug. Also it took her (or me?) less than twenty hour to get a chair in matching red.(OK, shut up. It is my wheel after all.)

So what do I think of it? You can all guess, I love everything about it. .

Ever since the thought of spinning found its way into my thoughts I loved this wheel. And when I actually decided I will buy one I did spent some serious time online to research. Even though I was prejudiced, I did gave a fair chance for all the other wheels in the price range i could afford. This was one wheel of which I could not find one bad word about it. Of the others there were some bad ones and lots of good things, but with a ten year old boy around I have to take comments like "can't take to be knocked around" seriously.

Beside I love how this little sweetheart looks. Its modern and classic,but most of all so funky. It does not look out of place in a flat at the tenth floor of a prefabricated building. .  The space it takes up was also a deciding factor, as much as I love the look of the Saxon style wheels, if I take one into my living room, I wouldn't be able get into the same room.But for its size she knows everything I need. It has a bunch of different ratios, she can be used with double drive as well as scotch tension. She has a high speed whorl (and bobbin too if I want to) -which for me, having the bias toward spinning thin lace yarn is important. Which is not important for me, but would be possible, to get a bulky flyer, to spin art yarn. For the moment I don't have interest in that, as a knitter I don't use that type of yarn, and I don't feel like spinning it either.

To save on shipping mine arrived in an unassambled state, and thanks to the careful explanations, and through booklets I could put it toogether easily. The oiling places are easy to reach, and it takes relatively little oil. It runs smooth, and quiet (I spin a lot whith the TV running). More technical detail can be read at the Knitty.com site . The review there was a major deciding factor for me, and from the technical site this far I agree with everything, and I could not add to it.Abby's article on selecting a first wheel was also really helpful.

Customer service was perfect (even for a very critical CC person like me). Corresponding with Jane was lovely, she was very patient even for the stupidest question I had, her answers always came within 24 hours, even after I had the wheel. The edge of one of the bobbins were broken off (this is probably because of the rough handling of the hungarian post), even though it is still useable the replacement was here in a very short time)

All in all, I could have gotten a wheel for less money, I do not mind. I always thought it is worth spending money on good tool. Also worth spending the money, and not to have regrets afterwards, and keep having thoughts, like "this is OK, but I would've really loved that other one. Unfortunately, here only a handful of wheels around.(though more and more, thankfully). It is not easy to make a decision without actually sit down to five-six, or more different wheels. Just had to go with my gut feeling, wich didn't leave me stranded for this once.

If you want to know how to get a bug like this, get in contact with me. I'll be glad to help.

This was the first thing I spun on it. 55 grams of merino/silk. I spun most of the 200 gramms I had on a spindle, two years ago, and gave it away promptly to my friend Jenny. The left over was lying low in the stash as it turned out it is really not my color, so I thought it would be a good practice material.Turned out to be 230 meters of two ply.

And this was spun from the wool I dyed not so long ago. 60 grams of merino, two ply, 350 meters

I don't have any specific purpouse for either of them. It was just practice. The skeins are lying around, maybe I keep them as a memento, maybe someone will fell in love with them and takes them, maybe one day they will tell me what they wanna become.