Snail Spirals

A new addition to my Schacht family came to live at my house this week, an Exceptionally High Speed whorl:



Left to right, those whorls are:

• Medium (9:1, 11:1)
• Fast (13:1, 15.5:1)
• Super High Speed (18.5:1, 22:1)
• Exceptionally High Speed (23.5:1, 27.5:1)

I finally tracked down the exceptionally high speed one last week, thanks to a tip on Ravelry. Schacht doesn't make this whorl any more, and I've been looking for one since I got my wheel. A shop in Las Vegas had three left on the shelf, and I had them mail one to me. The remaining two have also been sold, by the way, because when I posted on Ravelry that they had them, everyone burned up their phone lines. When I talked to her the next morning to confirm my address, the lady at the shop was quite bemused at the sudden flurry of calls. She didn't know about Ravelry because she doesn't have a computer. I don't think she knew what hit her.



Super High Speed on the left, Exceptionally High Speed on the right. It's not a huge difference visually, but it is definitely noticeable when spinning. The smallest whorl really zings along. Whee!

I haven't tried cotton with it yet, but some merino/silk blend spun up very fast, smooth, and fine with long draw. I can tell right now that well prepared fiber, allowing for a very fast draw, is imperative with this whorl. I look forward to getting to know it better.



I hardly ever spin on the larger whorls, and when I pulled them out for these picture, they looked immense. Really, though, they're decently fast for spinning thicker yarn. I'm using the small side of the Fast whorl to spin my green Buttercup sweater yarn. Two batts of that down, 28 to go!