The Louët story
No pictures today, but my weekend/early week experience.
I'm in a handspun sockyarn swap and we are supposed to send out our yarn tomorrow. Unfortunately of course, I had waited to long to actually work on this. Well, let me refraise that. Weeks ago I had dyed up the yarn. I had decided I wanted a special blend. So I tried to blend 90%merino, 5%flitter and 5% faux cashmere. The problems already started with the blending. I wasn't able to get it through my carder properly and it wasn't really "blended". I started spinning it anyway. It spun up quite nicely. Not that my spinning was perfect. Well, after finally finishing the 3 bobbins of singles on Sunday (I was adventurous and wanted to try my first 3ply) I started plying with my new Victoria wheel. To end this story before I start the one of the wheel, the yarn was to thick for the sock yarn I wanted and thus will stay here at my home. I'm already spinning other yarn, a pre-blended merino/silk roving.
Anyway, after about 10 minutes of plying the wheel started acting up. I didn't really worry at first as it was my first real sping with the wheel (I had brought it home back in November, but never found the time to actually sping with it, though it was tested at the home of the dealer). I started looking at all the upper parts to see what was wrong but couldn't find it. Kept trying to spin, changing all kinds of stuff. But nothing helped. Then I somehow happened to glance down. And I immidiately noticed the problem. The connection from the threadles to the fly-wheel was getting loose. As the Victoria is a travel wheel you have to slip a plastic holder over a ball-bearing attached to the fly-wheel. That ball-bearing was getting out of the wheel, already about 1 cm by the time I noticed. Got out my tool kit (very limited) and screwed it back in (the ball-bearing is attached with a regular screw). Started again. Things went ok for about 5 minutes. Same problem. And by trying to remove the plastic holder I pulled out the complete screw. As some of you might know : if you pull a screw out the whole it was in gets to big and you can't attach it anymore. So I was desperate.
As I did not know how to fix this (well, I knew several ways but didn't want to do it by myself) I called the bf. I had to wait a few hours for him to come home, but he did help me. We went over the possibilities. We eventually ended up screwing the ball-bearing back in at the different place on the wheel, which worked fine while spinning the rest of the yarn. But bf did say the wood was quite light for a screw and I did notice I was spinning left (to ply) which is the regular way to unscrew a screw!
By then I had already emailed the dealer and Louët. The woman (dealer) told me I shouldn't have done anything to the wheel, because she couldn't return it that way. She also told me Louët usually didn't respond to emails through their website, you had to go through the representatives.
The next day to my big surprise I got a very nice reply from Jan Louët! He told me this was a failure that shouldn't have happened and I would get a new wheel. He himself suggested temporarely fixing the wheel (he gave me a few options but not the one we used!) till I got the new one, and I would get that straight from them and no through my dealer. I emailed him back what I had done with the wheel, and that I did want a replacement as the wheel was still new and I was afraid for more problems (I could keep the fixed wheel if I wanted, but didn't need to keep it). They only had one wheel left in stock - will have new ones by February - and that one I would get.
The third email however someone else was emailing me and that person suddenly said I wasn't getting a complete wheel, only the fly-wheel! I didn't want that, as I'm not brave enough to replace that myself (well, it could give more problems that way as I'm not an expert). I send him a copy of the first email in which a new "complete" wheel was promissed me. Luckily the new wheel is in the mail to me as we are speaking! I don't know how long it will take. As soon as it gets here I'm to return my wheel to them (at their cost).
Now they did tell me they had already developped a new system for the whole connection thing. Good, 'cause I don't believe it was a good way. But hey, you can't be perfect from the first time off, right? Anyway, the wheel I'm getting has the modified connection, so let's hope it works.
So I'm very please with Louët! They have a really good service and I like that!
Luckily I still have my S45 to spin! Love that wheel!
Tomorrow I'm seeing a specialist for my hips and knees. The last 3 weeks I've been in enormous pains. I'm used to pain in my left knee as that one has some really serious problems. But this is more then just a bit pain. I can hardly sleep from that pain, and Wednesday at work was hell. I could hardly do the stairs, every part of my hurt. Of course my bf immidiately said it was from horse riding. Now I haven't been riding during the holidays so the pain I had then wasn't because of the riding! And Tuesday - the first time I went riding - my hips and knee were already hurting before I got on the horse! It hurt at first but after adjusting the lenght of my stirrups I had no pain at all! And during the riding and afterwards I was almost pain-free (expect for the pain I occasionally felt in my left knee but that's always the case). I didn't take any heave lessons, just light stuff. I was feeling a lot better till about 2 hours after when things started hurting again like hell. I went riding again this morning and I had a jumping lesson. I was expecting that would hurt as it's a lot more intense, but not at all! I didn't have any pain! I did feel I had almost no control in my left leg (my left ankle is sore too) and could not support my horse that side (sorry, horse talk, hard to explain). But apart from that no pain. And now sitting hurts, going up stairs hurts, and even when I'm laying down it hurst all the time! I know that's not stuff muscles or my regular pain. This is more.
I didn't want to go to work tomorrow because of the stairs. So my regular doctor was willing to write me a note as it's hard to get an appointment with a specialist soon. But I called and I can go by tomorrow! I know this guy is super as he treated various members of my family. I has no big name but doesn't want that. So tomorrow I'll know what's wrong with me. Please think of me because I hope I won't need any surgery or anything. I'm just getting back into the swing of things with the horses. I like my work and don't want to give it up because of the stairs (well, what work will I be able to do then if I can't do stairs, right?). Plus, I have no money. I'm almost broke and still have a few bills to pay! I have good insurance, but I still have to pay a small fee.
I have more to tell but I'm in pain and I need to cook dinner! Another boring night though. Our tv-cable got cut of on Monday (another long story) and we now have to wait till next Tuesday for a digital connection. I do have some DVDs to watch, but it's not much. We'll see.
One more thing : does anyone know a good way to read while you are knitting? And I mean regular books! I need a way to put them up in front of me and keep them open!
I'm in a handspun sockyarn swap and we are supposed to send out our yarn tomorrow. Unfortunately of course, I had waited to long to actually work on this. Well, let me refraise that. Weeks ago I had dyed up the yarn. I had decided I wanted a special blend. So I tried to blend 90%merino, 5%flitter and 5% faux cashmere. The problems already started with the blending. I wasn't able to get it through my carder properly and it wasn't really "blended". I started spinning it anyway. It spun up quite nicely. Not that my spinning was perfect. Well, after finally finishing the 3 bobbins of singles on Sunday (I was adventurous and wanted to try my first 3ply) I started plying with my new Victoria wheel. To end this story before I start the one of the wheel, the yarn was to thick for the sock yarn I wanted and thus will stay here at my home. I'm already spinning other yarn, a pre-blended merino/silk roving.
Anyway, after about 10 minutes of plying the wheel started acting up. I didn't really worry at first as it was my first real sping with the wheel (I had brought it home back in November, but never found the time to actually sping with it, though it was tested at the home of the dealer). I started looking at all the upper parts to see what was wrong but couldn't find it. Kept trying to spin, changing all kinds of stuff. But nothing helped. Then I somehow happened to glance down. And I immidiately noticed the problem. The connection from the threadles to the fly-wheel was getting loose. As the Victoria is a travel wheel you have to slip a plastic holder over a ball-bearing attached to the fly-wheel. That ball-bearing was getting out of the wheel, already about 1 cm by the time I noticed. Got out my tool kit (very limited) and screwed it back in (the ball-bearing is attached with a regular screw). Started again. Things went ok for about 5 minutes. Same problem. And by trying to remove the plastic holder I pulled out the complete screw. As some of you might know : if you pull a screw out the whole it was in gets to big and you can't attach it anymore. So I was desperate.
As I did not know how to fix this (well, I knew several ways but didn't want to do it by myself) I called the bf. I had to wait a few hours for him to come home, but he did help me. We went over the possibilities. We eventually ended up screwing the ball-bearing back in at the different place on the wheel, which worked fine while spinning the rest of the yarn. But bf did say the wood was quite light for a screw and I did notice I was spinning left (to ply) which is the regular way to unscrew a screw!
By then I had already emailed the dealer and Louët. The woman (dealer) told me I shouldn't have done anything to the wheel, because she couldn't return it that way. She also told me Louët usually didn't respond to emails through their website, you had to go through the representatives.
The next day to my big surprise I got a very nice reply from Jan Louët! He told me this was a failure that shouldn't have happened and I would get a new wheel. He himself suggested temporarely fixing the wheel (he gave me a few options but not the one we used!) till I got the new one, and I would get that straight from them and no through my dealer. I emailed him back what I had done with the wheel, and that I did want a replacement as the wheel was still new and I was afraid for more problems (I could keep the fixed wheel if I wanted, but didn't need to keep it). They only had one wheel left in stock - will have new ones by February - and that one I would get.
The third email however someone else was emailing me and that person suddenly said I wasn't getting a complete wheel, only the fly-wheel! I didn't want that, as I'm not brave enough to replace that myself (well, it could give more problems that way as I'm not an expert). I send him a copy of the first email in which a new "complete" wheel was promissed me. Luckily the new wheel is in the mail to me as we are speaking! I don't know how long it will take. As soon as it gets here I'm to return my wheel to them (at their cost).
Now they did tell me they had already developped a new system for the whole connection thing. Good, 'cause I don't believe it was a good way. But hey, you can't be perfect from the first time off, right? Anyway, the wheel I'm getting has the modified connection, so let's hope it works.
So I'm very please with Louët! They have a really good service and I like that!
Luckily I still have my S45 to spin! Love that wheel!
Tomorrow I'm seeing a specialist for my hips and knees. The last 3 weeks I've been in enormous pains. I'm used to pain in my left knee as that one has some really serious problems. But this is more then just a bit pain. I can hardly sleep from that pain, and Wednesday at work was hell. I could hardly do the stairs, every part of my hurt. Of course my bf immidiately said it was from horse riding. Now I haven't been riding during the holidays so the pain I had then wasn't because of the riding! And Tuesday - the first time I went riding - my hips and knee were already hurting before I got on the horse! It hurt at first but after adjusting the lenght of my stirrups I had no pain at all! And during the riding and afterwards I was almost pain-free (expect for the pain I occasionally felt in my left knee but that's always the case). I didn't take any heave lessons, just light stuff. I was feeling a lot better till about 2 hours after when things started hurting again like hell. I went riding again this morning and I had a jumping lesson. I was expecting that would hurt as it's a lot more intense, but not at all! I didn't have any pain! I did feel I had almost no control in my left leg (my left ankle is sore too) and could not support my horse that side (sorry, horse talk, hard to explain). But apart from that no pain. And now sitting hurts, going up stairs hurts, and even when I'm laying down it hurst all the time! I know that's not stuff muscles or my regular pain. This is more.
I didn't want to go to work tomorrow because of the stairs. So my regular doctor was willing to write me a note as it's hard to get an appointment with a specialist soon. But I called and I can go by tomorrow! I know this guy is super as he treated various members of my family. I has no big name but doesn't want that. So tomorrow I'll know what's wrong with me. Please think of me because I hope I won't need any surgery or anything. I'm just getting back into the swing of things with the horses. I like my work and don't want to give it up because of the stairs (well, what work will I be able to do then if I can't do stairs, right?). Plus, I have no money. I'm almost broke and still have a few bills to pay! I have good insurance, but I still have to pay a small fee.
I have more to tell but I'm in pain and I need to cook dinner! Another boring night though. Our tv-cable got cut of on Monday (another long story) and we now have to wait till next Tuesday for a digital connection. I do have some DVDs to watch, but it's not much. We'll see.
One more thing : does anyone know a good way to read while you are knitting? And I mean regular books! I need a way to put them up in front of me and keep them open!
posted by Emily at 7:01 PM
2 Comments:
ah, your poor spinning wheel, so glad they are going to take care of it for you. Good luck on your appointment-hope something is figured out and pain can ease! Good question about the reading..I was thinking of that...perhaps a cookbook holder off on your side table?
pj, that's what i thought too: a holders for recipe books. they tend to have a sturdy way to keep the pages open where you want them to be open.
i have never tested it though as i am one of those people who is much better off to look at her stitches most of the time or everything becomes as great big mess.
the blue line around the pics you mentioned: i don't see it with my apple safari browser. however, the solution is to use [border=0] in the [img] tag of your code.
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