I got a new toy...

...it's a Louet S15! Yes, I've been spinning since January and so far I have acquired a drop spindle and 2 wheels. Not that I'm obsessive or anything you understand!

I love the first wheel I bought, it was pretty basic and I thought it was ok but as I started to learn more about the art of psinning I kept finding fault with it. It spun very fast, it rattled so much the mother of all was coming loose and on closer inspection the flyer rod was not only bent but was off centre in the flyer so can't even be repaired.

At Easter I visited my good friend Babylonglegs and she kindly let me try out her Louet S10. It was a dream compared to my rustic spinner so I gather together enough cash and found an S15 on eBay going for a bargain. My finger slipped on the BIN button and it was mine!

I was so pleased when it arrived, my DH helped me assemble it but we had a few problems. The treadle connector was split almost all the way through. Disaster! Thankfully Babylonglegs had told me about a way to fix it with coaxial cable so 10 minutes later my DH had pinched some from the kids tv aerial and it was fixed. The plastic cap bit that went over the bearings was slightly cracked and a piece snapped off when we put it on. I got it together and started to spin, a dab of vaseline soon stopped the horrendous squeaking and I was away!

I hadn't had chance to use it much what with family life getting in the way of having a life of my own, but last week I found some quiet time and I sat down to spin some lovely rainbow BFL roving when disaster struck again. I was in the groove, my long draw was really consistent and then PING! The drive band snapped in two and fell to the floor! Thank heavens for the Louet Lovers Ravelry group! A kind soul on there suggested that I melt the ends of the driveband to stick it back together and it worked. :-)

I love my new wheel but I was disappointed that so many things had gone wrong with it, especially as it was listed as hardly used and like new. I sent a message to the seller and I asked for a refund to buy replacement parts. She agreed, but even that went wrong! Instead of refunding me £10 she paid me 10 Euros, I got charged for accepting the payment and I had to convert the amount into US dollars in order to accept it. I got considerably less than the £10 I needed for the parts but I was keen to get it sorted so I accepted it and learned my lesson about buying second hands wheels on eBay.

Hopefully now everything is sorted and I can get to know and love my Louet. I've been busy with my first lot of handspun on it. I spun, plied, hand dyed and knitted it into a gorgeous paiir of longies which are going to be part of a special set in my shop Flowerpot Tots