Wheel Progress

I started staining the wheel yesterday. The European alder and birch softwood is taking stain to different degrees depending on the angle of the wood and how it was shaped. For example, some places are paler because the wood was cut or sanded with the grain, so the wood cells aren’t as open and thirsty. If the sanding or shaping took place across the grain — like most of the spindling, I discovered — it soaks the stain up in great gulps leaving nothing to wipe off and swathes of dark colour behind. I wonder if I shouldn’t have used some of that wood conditioner prep stuff to even it out (not that I knew this would happen, or where; you can see some sections of the pieced wheel rim are darker right next to paler sections, for example). Eh; done is done.

Last night it took half an hour to do the table and an hour to do the drive wheel alone. As you can see, the spindles of the wheel still aren’t done; they’re very finicky, and I’ve asked HRH to do those. There are more bits and pieces and fittings like bobbins and whorls and pegs to do, too, and the lazy kate to stain.

This is just the first coat. I have to sand these and do at least one more coat of stain, and as it’s come up so dark already I’m considering applying a lighter, more golden-toned stain over top to warm it up (I know I have at least one half-can of golden mid-brown left over from staining various shelves and the Louet). The table and the flyer are the colour I was hoping for, using Miniwax Dark Walnut 2716. I may adjust my level of sanding depending on what piece I’m doing, to try to get more off the darker parts. Waxing it will warm up the colour a bit, too, because right now the finish is quite matte and absorbing light instead of reflecting it.

Because my retailer was short-shipped the rods and tension peg for the lazy kate in the original wheel delivery, they shipped separately from the North American distributor directly to me, and the parcel guy dropped them off today. The boy and I had made it all the way to the corner when the van pulled up to our house, and as there was already a decent amount of snow to trudge through plus wind, I made the decision to keep trekking to the bus stop even though the boy kept pointing out the van. The postman would drop off a card and I’d collect the parcel at the post office tomorrow, I reassured him. Well, we’d gone round the first corner and had reached the next when there was the beep of a horn, and I looked up to see that the parcel guy had pulled his van over to the other side of the street and was waving at me. So the boy and I scurried across the road and he gave me my package of rods and pegs, bless him. “I saw you’d left and I thought that maybe your husband was home,” he said cheerfully, snow whipping into his face as I signed for it. “I knew you weren’t far.” I thanked him fervently. I shall pick up a Tim Hortons gift card and leave it by the door to hand to him next time he drops by. Except I don’t think I’ve ordered anything else that would arrive by parcel post, now that I have both my spindles, the wheel, and the short-shipped stuff; the DVDs and books I’m waiting for arrive by regular mail. Doesn’t this mean I ought to order something new?

10 thoughts on “Wheel Progress

  1. Prospero's Daughter

    The colour is lovely, and the differences in depth give it character. Looking forward to seeing it all finished.

  2. Ceri

    Lovely colour. I can’t wait to see it in person.

    Agree about the Tim Horton’s gift card. You should definitely order some books in order to have an excuse for the parcel guy to come by. (Didn’t you have some Christmas gift certificates somewhere…?)

  3. jan

    Let me know if you decide to do a KnitPicks order. I do indeed need a bal lwinder, and I want to get some dyeable laceweight yarn, too.

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