My new Addition

An opportunity to own one of these wheels does not come around every day.

If you hadn't already realised what it is from the picture above, my new addition is a Cherry Matchless, manufactured by the Schacht Spindle Company to celebrate their 40th Anniversary of trading.

Only 150 of these wheels were made.

Thanks to a genius piece of direct marketing by it's previous owner ie a Facbook tagging (yes folks, I am that easy, teehee) it now belongs to little old me :) I was not even thinking of buying another wheel, but this is the only one that would have turned my head, in fact my head was turned so fast I nearly ended up with whiplash ;)

I picked it up at Wonderwool this weekend, delivered to me by the lovely Kat (thankyou to infinity, Kat!!!)

As you can see from these two photos, it is very similar in construction and set up as my Robin Deluxe only the Robin has mahoOOosive bobbins, is a leetle (only a little mind you) bit prettier and the Matchless has 3 modes of tension, whereas Robin has only two. Robin is also smaller.

I messed about with the double drive option for a while, but I just couldn't get on with the yank I got when the driveband knot went over the whorls, so I have it now set up on Scotch tension, which I much prefer. I was probably doing something glaringly wrong with the Double Drive, but, I felt I really needed to bond with this wheel as soon as possible...so I reverted to the tension mode I know.
The detail in the wood is just stunning, and it will only get better with age, as Cherry gets redder as it gets older, as you can see on the Robin.

So there we are...say hello to my new baby.... ****grins***