Wooly Wednesday, or, I'm Really Scared to Use the Wrong Oil

what if i gum up the ball bearings in the center of the fly wheel?
what if the olive oil turns rancid and then my wheel smells like old french fries for ever?
what if, by using non-Ashford-aproved oil I rip a whole space-time-wool continuum and suck the universe into the void?


Turns out, I'm scared to death to oil my spinning wheel at all, unless I know for certain the oil is spinning wheel safe. Before we moved, I had a needle oiler and it was perfect. It came from a spinning wheel company via my spinning mentor so I knew it was legit. I could squeeze the exact right amount of oil into all the spinning bits and know that I was doing well by my wheel. Well, the hellspawn wonderful and beloved fruit of my womb snapped of the tip of that ever-important needle oiler and then removed the cap and dumped all the oil onto the deck... days before we packed up to move. I very carefully moved my sacred spinning wheel, it rode in the back of the rental car with the kids and I so that I knew it would be safe...

it is a horrible picture taken in the middle of the night, the only time on the whole adventure that I remembered I wanted a pic of the way I packed the wheel with the house plants, diapers, and snacks. useful.

So we got here, to our new house and I set up my very own fiber room. A special place for my wheel to be safe from heathens who love whirling anything. A wooly sanctuary, I've written about it before... But I have yet to spin there... I haven't replaced the oil and oiler and I am petrified that I will cause the metal bits to rust into oblivion and the plastic bits to melt like lava. So my wheel sat, untouched, not feeling any love... I tried to show it love by surrounding it in fibers and glorying in all the wonderful yarn spun so far, but it is still mad at me. 


A few days ago, I went to Ravelry and asked around about the types of oil I could use in a pinch. The same amount of people said "Yes, olive oil is fine in a pinch." as said "No! it'll go rancid and you're wheel will never recoverrrrreeeee......." I did what any desperate addict fiber artist would do... I tried it. The wheel hated it... or maybe I was projecting my fear and uncertanty. I oiled it up, I gave it a few test treaddles and everything seemed fine-ish. I hooked up the drive band and the tension thingy and got out the rest of the brown and grey merino I'm trying to spin into self striping sock yarn. I fussed and fidgeted, I adjusted tension, seating arrangement, hand positions... I moved off the carpet... Turns out, that helped a lot, but not enough. It felt like my poor wheel hated being treaddled. like hated hated. I don't know what to do besides wait till I get a new bank card and order a new oiler. In the meantime, though, I arranged my beloved wheel with The ManChild's birth plant in another attempt to make it feel loved...

The trunk the wheel is sitting on came from the old country with one of my grandma's people. Inside are clippings from the Ukrainian or something newspaper. I've had it for years and I love keeping all my special things, photos, baby clothes... special stuff, in there. 

yes, I know that if I intend for this to be an even remotely successful knit blog, I might need a better camera... working on it.

..... And I spun this on my drop spindle out of random leftover bits that got left behind out of their own braids...

The color looks mostly blue in the picture but it is a crazy mix of purple and yellow and pink and orange and blue (yes, a lot of blue) and green and I love it. It is a blend of every different fiber I've ever spun since the very first yarn all combed together and plied with some white mystery sheep roving. At the very end of the plying I realized I hadn't spun enough white so I stretched out the last of the blue and plied it back on itself so there is about a yard and a half for a border or something. Honestly, it's kind of itchy so I have to figure out what to do with.

Now, make sure you head on over to Spinspiration to see what every one else has been working on, some of these ladies are quite talented...