Spinning frenzy

I spent a glorious afternoon learning the traditional art of spinning! Heidi at London-Wul offered a Learn to Spin class this afternoon and a few of us brave souls attended. I say brave because it is very addictive. Once you try it you are hooked, or at least I am!


I tried 4 spinning wheels during my 'training', all of which I must say were very nice. I tried out 3 Ashfords: Traveller, Traditional and Joy; and 1 Louet: Victoria.

There are a few main differences I took note of between them. The Joy and the Victoria and really portable. They can actually be put into carrying bags so they are great for the travelling spinner (but so are drop spindles). The Traveller and the Victoria were both double treadle (2 foot pedals) and the Traditional and the Joy were both single (but can be adapted to have 2). I preferred the double treadle as I found it easier to get the wheel going at a constant pace. I'm sure with practice I would master the single treadle, but as a beginner the double was easier for me. They all had a scotch tension and I noticed on the Ashford website that the also can come with either a single or double drive, but the ones I used were all single.
At the end of the day after trying out all 4 wheels I was really wanting to take one home and the winner by a nose was the Ashford Traveller, followed by the Traditional at a close second. I spun easily on the Traveller, I liked the double treadle and it is a bit more portable than the Traditional. The Traditional has very nice astectically pleasing lines to it (it was Troy's favorite visually) but the Traveller is also very cute.

So the question remains... when will I buy it?