Electronic Spinning Wheel - The Roberta - Spinning Cotton
After the class on Spinning with Cotton by Joan Ruane I came home and immediately began spinning Cotton with my Roberta. Roberta is an Electronic Spinner, as most of you know. Spinning with the Roberta allows my hand spun to be abundant for all of my newly planned projects.
The main thing to remember while spinning with cotton is learn your long draw. I find myself using the long draw spinning with the Roberta even while spinning with Merino.
The flyer on the Roberta has one movable hook and an O-Ring. I move the O-Ring one roll when I wish to continue an even spun bobbin. It is easy and smooth to do by just stepping on my foot pause control, move the O-Ring and spinning once again by removing my foot from the pause control. If you do not have a pause control attachment on your Spinner you can just turn the stitch to off.
The Roberta is a bobbin driven spinner with an Irish Brake Tension. The speed adjustment knob determines the rate of twist and if I need more pull in rate, I adjust the Irish Brake Tension. This smooth spinning creates such even and nicely spun cotton. Of course, Roberta is great for plying cotton and all other fibers.
Note my Mouse Pad on the bed of Roberta. It helps keep the wood on the Roberta in great shape. While changing bobbins or oiling the shaft of the flyer it is convenent to have the mouse pad in place to protect your Roberta from any scratches in the case you drop the flyer or bobbin. Also, it is nice to have a mouse pad with a photo of your favorite hand spun yarn or a beloved pet. I call this Roberta Adornment.
Keep the mouse pad clean with a spray or two of De-Solv-It. The De-Sov-It cleans away any trace of Ertoel Oil, which sometimes drops on the mouse pad. Having a clean and well cared for Spinner makes spinning more fun. Happy Spinning!
well have finally found your site again and happy to see you are busy spinning away and wow what a fun toy!! I have gotten a babe electric spinner from a friend and hope to learn how to use it! I have also acquired a wonderful Pirtle as well and still have my trusty old Louet and have been busy spinning every day! I sure do love it and hope this finds you well!! will be out of school soon and so hope to stay caught up with my friends again!!
hugs Linda
Posted by:Linda | May 11, 2008 at 03:49 PM
Linda, glad to see you back. I have spun on the babe and that is what made me do a lot of research on the electric wheels. I love is electonic wheel which makes it so easy to spin up a lot of Raggedy Ro Hand Spun for all of my project. Wish you were not so far away, I would love to have you over for an afternoon of spinning. Rowena
Posted by:Rowena Tank | May 11, 2008 at 04:07 PM
Oh so I did post here thought so but didn't see the note till now!! oh I too wish I were closer and would love to see all your work etc!! will have to email me again so we can chat more!! didn't realize you replied to my post but glad I found it!! email me when you can!! am almost done with school and will finally be able to play catch up with friends again!! (at least for a few months!!!) hugs Linda
primitivetymes@ncwcom.com
Posted by:Linda | May 17, 2008 at 04:06 PM