My lovely Ashford Kiwi spinning wheel is all finished, assembled and ready to spin!

The Finishing Process:

The finishing process was really pretty painless.  I chose Minwax Polyshades, a combination stain and polyurethane.  Note that this is not water-based so you’ll need mineral spirits for cleanup and you’ll want to work in a well-ventilated area.  (I worked in our garage with the door completely open.)  This finish is very inexpensive.  You can find it at your local hardware store or WalMart.  I bought the larger can but only used about 1/4 of it, so the smaller can probably would have been more than sufficient.  The Minwax site recommends using a natural bristle brush to apply the finish.  I used small sponge-brushes and they worked well for me (and only cost about 59-cents).

The color I chose is “Bombay Mahogany”.  I’m a huge fan of red woods like cherry and mahogany.  I did about three coats on all the pieces.  I think the wheel itself (which is MDF rather than solid wood) might have gotten an extra coat.  It did take quite a while to dry completely but we were also having some very cool, damp weather while I was working on it so I think that was a big part of my problem.

The color turned out really rich and beautiful and I’m extremely pleased with it.  I’m hoping the polyurethane will help the wheel hold up for years to come.

Assembly:

Ashford supplied a very nice folder with their product which contains assembly directions, spinning directions, and two spinning/fiber-related magazines.  The assembly directions have next to no text-instructions, instead using drawings to explain the assembly process.  For the most part, the directions were pretty easy to follow.  Keep in mind that I’ve never in my life laid hands on a spinning wheel, yet I was able to assemble this one.  I think Ashford deserves high praise for their directions!

The only portion of the instructions that gave me trouble was step 13, where you attach a string, two springs, and the tension knob.  (I believe this would be the brake-band?)  Ashford supplied a piece of fishing-line to use for this, and my knots just kept slipping.  I gave up and used kitchen cotton instead, but I’m still struggling to get enough tension.

… And the Spinning Begins:

My very first attempt with spinning was a couple weeks back with some corriedale from CJ Kopec Creations. The fiber was absolutely beautiful but I made two key mistakes with it: first, I didn’t do enough pre-drafting of the fiber, and second, I didn’t have my brake band on the wheel adjusted right.  In the end I made a real mess of the bit that I spun so I decided to start over.  So here’s a short video clip of last night’s attempt:

For the heck of it, I decided to try some Sakina Needles BFL that I got from The Loopy Ewe.  This time I spend a lot of time pre-drafting the fiber.  It made a huge difference.

I also managed to get the brake band on the wheel adjusted.  I used a tip I read on one of the Ravelry spinning groups.  They suggested removing the spring on the left side of the wheel’s band and just use the one spring on the right side.  That made it much easier.

I spun the entire 4 oz. of fiber while watching Grey’s Anatomy and Lost.  I made two singles (though one is a lot bigger/longer than the other).  I’m going to attempt to ply them together tonight, I think.

I’m debating now on what I’ll spin next.  I have two more beautiful merino-blend rovings from CJ Kopec and I also have some gorgeous 100% merino from The Dyeing Arts.  I’m just a little nervous to switch over to merino because the staple length (from what I’ve read) is so much shorter than BFL.  Can I do it?  May as well try, right…?