Take pity on this new spinner with a lendrum

[cindi1]

Hi everyone - I'm new here and am a very new spinner but a long time crocheter and knitter.

I took a six week spinning class using a Schacht Matchless wheel and loved the class. Then I purchased a Lendrum folding wheel and love spinning on it. BUT it came with no instructions and when I tried to ply yarn I had to really peddle hard no matter how I set the tension, etc.

I have the plying flywheel - do I need to use that to ply more easily or is there something wrong with my wheel?

I would appreciate ANY help you can offer!

[hummingbird]

Hi. Maybe I can help? I have a Lendrum. I really like my wheel. Yeah, the no instructions did make it a challenge to put together.

I use the largest whorl on the standard flyer a whole lot. If I made thinner yarn that needed more twist I would just move the drive band down to a smaller whorl so it would turn faster with less treddling. You could try using a smaller whorl so your foot/feet dont' have to go so fast.

I don't have a plying flywheel and really don't know what that is. I'm relatively new to spinning too, but I really enjoy it and have been trying out lots of stuff and different fibers.

I've tried several different plying methods. I think the easiest is to spin onto 2 or 3 bobbins (for 2 or 3 ply yarn) then put those on a lazy kate and ply from that.
I don't really like having short bits of single ply left over so I often use navajo plying to make a 3 ply yarn. It's like a crochet chain with really big loops that are twisted. Or andean plying to make a 2 ply. You take both ends of the single that you spun and ply them together. A wooden tool or ballwinder work well for this.

Plying really shouldn't be that different from spinning, you're just turning the wheel the opposite direction.

Test your wheel without yarn on it. Treddle one way then the other. Does the flyer turn at the same speed both directions? I'm not sure what would cause it to turn at different speeds... Does the drive band slip at all?
It should be smooth and quiet.
You could try spinning a small bit of yarn in the direction opposite what you normally spin ( the direction you ply) and see if you have to treadle fast when spinning that sample.

I hope that helps. If you still can't figure out the problem I suggest having your wheel looked at professionaly.

Please let me know if I'm on the right track at all. If you have more questions I'll do my best to answer them.

cheers

[cindi1]

Thank you! I'll test it out as you suggest.

[spinnknit]

If it seems a bit hard treadling when you ply, you might try adjusting the tension (the string over top of the bobbin) a bit.

I use my Lendrum mainly for spinning angora and for plying. I do have the big ol' plying bobbin. I take two FULL bobbins from another wheel and ply them together on the Lendrum. Boy, howdy! Do I get BIG skeins!

[cindi1]

Thanks for the tips. I tried spinning in the other direction and also played with the tension and plying went much better this time. I didn't use the plying head because I was just trying it out with a small amount of yarn but I will definitely use it when making big skeins.

I also used the lazy kate which made it a lot easier, too.

Thanks so much for the help!

[hummingbird]

Yay! I'm so glad I could help!

[Pink Dandelion]

If you're using the plying flyer you'll want to switch to the plying drive band, it's a little bigger than the standard driveband and if the band's too tight it can make treadling harder.

I leave both bands 'on' (but only one at a time actually around the wheel and the flyer of course) I take the one I'm not using, and to keep it out of the way bring it behind the wheel and coil it around the knob on the back (the one you take out to fold the wheel) if that makes any sense.

I found this easier than popping the c clip on the footman on and off all the time. I have considered replacing the c clip with a pin or something easier to remove.

[cindi1]

Thank you! Yes, that makes sense to me and is a great tip.

I'm so glad I found this website.