My First Spinning Wheel, and a Bit About Drive Ratios

I’m so happy with my new Ashford traditional spinning wheel!

New to me, that is. The beautiful wheel is older than I am. After referring to Ashford’s timeline for the traditional wheel (which is an interesting read in and of itself), I think it was made in 1975 or shortly after.

Well-loved in its early life, it has been well taken care of. Its previous owner decided it had been simply an ornament for too many years and finally parted with it via craigslist. I was surprised to be the first, and one of the only, people to call her about it because I’d been keeping my eye out for a while and these babies sell fast – especially the ones that are in such great shape despite their years. This one was meant to be passed on to me!

I think I may replace the break band and spring, and oil a few of the metal parts, but she’s spinning like a dream already. This is literally the first time I’ve spun yarn on a wheel, and it was surprisingly easy to get the hang of. A fantastic and simple wheel for a beginner. It just feels good, natural. The hardest part of spinning is the drafting!

I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted from my first wheel, just that I’ve been wanting one for a long time. This scotch tension system is a simple and efficient place to start. It’s a sensitive system that responds to a fraction of a millimeter of movement, and you have to find just the right amount of tension so that it brakes the bobbin enough to pull the yarn in gently, but only when you let it.

Spinning Wheel Drive Ratios

The drive ratio on a spinning wheel represents the number of times the flyer turns in relation to the wheel.

This ratio is determined by the drive band. Depending on your wheel’s style, the drive band connects the wheel to the flyer, the bobbin, or both. This page on the Joy of Handspinning website gives a good overview of the three most common types of wheels.

My new wheel is a single drive wheel with a scotch tension brake system. This means that the wheel is connected to the flyer, which rotates around the bobbin. The bobbin is held by a separate band in the back and the tensioning knob is rotated (very, very slightly) to brake the bobbin so you can control the speed at which the yarn winds onto the bobbin. I rubbed some candle wax on this wood-to-wood connection to make it a bit smoother.

See the brake band on the left (back of wheel) and the thicker drive band on the right (front of wheel).

This wheel has a single ratio of 6.5:1. It seems pretty suited for my style. However, I may eventually try to make a bobbin with a much higher ratio (newer Ashford traditional wheels have three ratios, up to 17.5:1) to easily spin finer yarns as well.

To find your wheel’s drive ratio:

Turn the wheel slowly with your hand for one full rotation, counting the number of rotations the flyer makes.

As an example of what this means, if I were to draft an inch of fiber for every turn the wheel makes, my yarn would have 6.5 twists per inch. The thinner the yarn, the more twist it needs to hold together properly. If I want to spin thinner, I need to either treadle faster or draft slower to increase the drive ratio and give me a higher twist.

My First Wheel-spun Yarn

I don’t think I could be happier with the way that my first yarn spun on my new spinning wheel has turned out. I ended up with 194 yards of 2-ply superwash merino, dk-weight. At 11 wraps per inch, it’s just the weight I was shooting for.

I chose this fiber to start with because of its blended colors, so I can practice drafting without worrying about making smooth color transitions. It’s difficult to tell from the photos, but the dark color variations in the yarn are quite rich when you take a close look.