The wait for the announcement of the miniSpinner v2 felt interminable, but in due time it was put up on the shop web site. I put in an order immediately, thinking that I'd only have to wait for a couple more weeks for the delivery.
As it is with any production, things can go wrong, and they did. So I waited again until the miniSpinner was shipped, and then some more until it arrived. I am not upset about all that wait, it made the unpacking and first spin so much sweeter.
Let me present a Hansencrafts miniSpinner v2 in maple. The flyer in this photo is the lace flyer which I added because I mostly like spinning fine yarns. I ordered it with a standard flyer for the possibility of spinning thicker yarns as well, but mostly for plying capacity. I also ordered the larger quill for learning to spin long draw from a quill, all three sizes of the orifice reducers, and a maintenance kit.
This is the group photo for the whole lot. The package also included 12 volt automobile adapter, an orifice threader, and sample fibre. The fibre is luscious and too good to mess up for practice, so I used the half a batt left from my spinning experiment last year to get to know the Scotch tension and to get acquainted with my new toy tool.
Since the Akerworks bobbins haven't arrived yet (it was so hard to decide which colours and patterns to get!), I spun the yarn onto the one bobbin that came with the lace flyer and chain plied it with the standard flyer. It is just as uneven as the "get acquainted with a new tool" yarn is expected to be.
Some lengths are over-spun, some under-spun, some over-plied or under-plied, I left in some clumps of fibre that refused to draft as well. I also practised at least three different drafts which adds variety to this yarn. I haven't decided what to use it for yet.
I love my new spinner. The takeup is so light that after spinning on it for a while, my tiny 12 g spindle felt like it was ripping the fibre out of my hand. Crazy! Right? Once the bobbins arrive, I plan to use it to finish spinning some 3-ply projects that I started on spindles. And after that, I have so many ideas for new yarns to spin from the fibre I have.