I called The Woolery yesterday morning to check on the availability of a particular spinning wheel...

I found out that their latest shipment from the company that had arrived at the beginning of this month, had already sold out!! But that they had a new shipment already on it's way and it would be 1-2 weeks until it gets there... a little disappointed that they didn't have them in stock at the time I sat there dejectedly staring at my computer and I got to thinking what if they ran out of THIS shipment before it was even in? How long would it be before they got more? I really wanted it from The Woolery because they had the real nice carry-bag exclusive to their store, and right now it was 50% off with the purchase of a wheel. I continued giving my computer a cold hard indecisive stare... I really hadn't planned on getting a wheel this soon... and now all the sudden I was trying to decide whether or not to order NOW, was I jumping into all this too fast?

I mulled it all over, telling my mom all my random thoughts - the only one around to hear me at the time... when finally mom just handed me the credit card, I think it was a silent "Oh shut up and order it already!". Well, of course I took the hint. Within a few more minutes I was the future owner of a...

"Lendrum Original Double Treadle Complete Package Spinning Wheel"!!!
(that's a mouthful...)

It'll be up to 4 weeks before it's here, I think I'll handle the wait okay, or at least I tell myself that thinking it helps somehow...

I want to shout from the hill tops - "I got a new WHEEEEEEL!!!! And It's all MIIIIIIIIINE!!!"... but it's pouring rain out right now (as it has been for the last week :-P ), so I'll have to content my self with shouting from my desk top, or at least shouting from atop a dinning chair and generally driving my family insane for the 4 weeks till it's arrival...

I had a chance to try spinning wheels at the last spinning guild meeting I went to, and it was a draw between the Lendrum Original and the Schacht Matchless (both double treadles, the single treadle matchless felt very stiff to me and no one had a single treadle Lendrum there)

About a week later I decided to check up on prices, just so I knew how much I was looking at needing to save, and that was the clincher, the Schacht was $244 more than the lendrum - I decided that the Schacht was not $244 smoother...

Then things about the lendrum kept popping up, this person or that person posting a good opinion, I'd looked and seen very few negative opinions of the Lendrum wheel, and with the larger plying orifice and the foldable feature (and the fact that when set up it seemed to take up less floor space than many other full size wheels - floor space is precious in my bedroom, which is where I'll be keeping it so that little hands will be safe from spinning flyer hooks and vise versa ;-)) . It was also the tallest of any of the wheel I saw at the guild meeting, which makes a big difference to me.

I really hadn't planned on getting a wheel this fast, but I had some money from my Grandmother who passed away a few years back. I'd been saving the money for several years to spend on something really special. I thought I had settled on a cedar chest, but when I was looking at wheel I knew that it would take me a long time to save what I needed and started to wonder if maybe a cedar chest wasn't for me. I really didn’t have a practical place to put one... and they took up more space than I'm usually willing to give up (I'm a strong believer in vertical storage ;-) )

The final deciding factor was when I went to decide whether or not to spend that money on a spinning wheel, I could actively save for a spinning wheel, or use the cedar chest money, but then I thought to myself... but I don't know then that I would actively save for a cedar chest... wait... then should I really be shelling out hundreds on it, and would it really be as special to me as I thought it would be?

My Grandmother was one of the biggest supporters of my arts and crafts. There was nothing she liked better than something hand made by my sister or me. Every time she'd visit when we were little she would encourage my sister and I to set up a shop for her with things we made so she could come and buy from us. She also saved a table loom knowing that my sister and I would like it, weaving is something I have yet to learn to use, but look forward to the time when I can, and I can use her loom. So I decided that a spinning wheel - my first spinning wheel - would be the perfect 'special' item to buy with the money.