After I unpacked and built my new wheel, I went through my process of working with a new or new to me wheel. Usually I just do all of these thing in more or less the same order. This time I wrote them down and I thought I'd share them.
- First I read the manual, well at least skim the manual.
- I dust the wheel, oil it where it needs to be oiled and check that all of the nuts and bolts are tight.
- I put on a new drive band.
- I sit and treadle for a while. Maybe through a TV show. I treadle both directions and practice stopping and starting with just my feet.
- I find the perfect chair or seat for the wheel. I have short legs and bad knees; I need a chair that fits me in relation to the treadles.
- I put new leaders on all of the bobbins.
- I spin 4 ounces of my current default yarn, learning to adjust the wheel a little.
- I spin 4 ounces of fiber moving from laceweight to bulky and back again, learning to make bigger adjustments.
- I ply yarn.
- I get my friends to spin on it. It's the spinners' version of passing around a new baby. I listen closely to what they have to say when they are spinning. Sometimes I don't believe myself when I think something is a little off. I watch them spin too, because sometime I can't see the wobbly wheel.
What do you do with a new wheel?