A couple of months ago I went looking for a used single-treadle Schacht Matchless, a wheel that was discontinued some years ago. (Schacht still makes a double-treadle version. I don’t like double. For one thing, the way I sit doesn’t work well for double. For another, I like having a foot on the floor.) I found one. A woman who lived in the Washington, DC area was going to be in NE Pennsylvania to visit family in a few weeks. She could bring the wheel and meet up with me.
But before I agreed, I found someone who let me try out her wheel. She was two hours away, but it was worth the trip. I tried hers, fell in love with it, and told the DC seller I was happy to meet up with her.
This is my new baby.
I have a Woolee Winder for her, because I have a hard time spinning on a treadle wheel without one.
I would definitely not recommend the Matchless as someone’s first spinning wheel. Getting it set up is tricky AF. There are multiple things you can adjust, multiple places that require frequent oiling, and three different drive methods (double drive, Scotch tension, and Irish tension). Oh, and you have to change out the whorl based on how fast you want the wheel to go. Schacht makes five sizes of whorls, each with two different settings.
All this, of course, makes it a wonderful wheel for people who know how to do all those things. But there was still a learning curve for me. For example, my ideal drive ratio for most singles is 17:1 (the larger groove on the high-speed whorl). But I figured out pretty quickly that I couldn’t ply at that ratio. So I do it at 10.5:1 (the smaller groove on the medium whorl). And of course I have to change the drive band tension every time I switch whorls. I’m doing Scotch tension, and with the Woolee Winder, I have to be very careful about getting my takeup right.
But all that fiddly stuff (which I’ve gotten much faster at, as I’ve learned the wheel) is worth it. When I get the settings right, I barely have to touch the treadle to keep it moving. It spins at exactly the speed I want it to, without me having to wait for my yarn to get enough twist in it. It’s wonderful. And I don’t have to change any settings between singles bobbins. Just for plying.
But you see how it would be a bad wheel for a beginner.
I still use the Electric Eel Wheel 6.1, which I got last summer and is great for traveling. I use it on a tripod, as Dreaming Robots released a free 3D printing pattern for a box to mount the wheel on any standard tripod. I used it while I was the passenger in a car a few weeks ago, even. The battery fits in the base of the wheel, and still had power after over 4 hours of use.
I have a level winder for it, but the thing is so fiddly and badly made that I don’t use it. Which sucks.
(Oh, hey, and some of you are probably wondering how I afford this stuff. One, I buy used whenever possible. Two, I use the money from my handspun yarn sales to fund my fiber arts. Which is the whole reason I sell my yarn. Well, that and I make too much to ever use up on my own…)
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