Last week my husband asked me if he could try out one of my spinning wheels. Since I currently have two in my possession and only one spinning project that really needs my attention I said sure. I mean it’s spinning, it’s not like knitting. I just can’t go out and buy another wheel because I feel like starting something new. First, wheels take up way more space than a new set of knitting needles. I think that my husband would sort of notice if the place started filling up with wheels. I’m pretty sure that by the time the fourth or fifth one showed up, batting my cute little eyelashes and saying “what, that old thing? I just pulled it out of the back of the closet,” would probably stop working. Also, there’s that little issue of price difference between a wheel and a $10 set of needles and as much I am willing to joke about using the grocery money on yarn using the rent money on a wheel is something that may not be tolerated all that well, even though any of my regular readers can tell you that my husband is a pretty tolerant guy.
So my husband asked me if he could try out a wheel and I said yes and dug out one of the learning batts that was given to me when I took my spinning class a couple of summers ago. After a small issue with the drive band we managed to get him started. I tried really hard to keep my mouth shut and not correct every little thing that he was doing since we clearly have a difference of opinion on the concept of helpful. I call it giving him helpful hints he calls it me making him crazy. (We did eventually strike a balance somewhere in the middle that seemed to work for both of us.) But when he looked at me and said, “I can’t figure out how to make my hands go” I had to chuckle to myself and suddenly I was back in the yarn store looking at Denny and my wheel and thinking “if I could just make my hands go right this would be so much easier!!!”
And really we all start there. My experience also included calling my Bff the next day practically in tears half sobbing into the phone that I was convinced that “my wheel was the work of the devil and I was going to pitch the whole thing off the balcony ” if she couldn’t help me. But she did help me and two years later I bought the same make of wheel that almost was thrown out the house. Fortunately my husband didn’t get that frustrated and all in all he didn’t do too badly.
Looks pretty good for his first try
Plus, if he keeps it up, there will be lots of new yarn for me to knit with very soon.
whendidibecomeaknitter 