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You can spin on Victoria with one or two feet. Many people treadle with both
feet, resulting in lighter and smoother operation. If you use one foot, you
have greater flexibility to position the wheel away from you or at a slight
angle.
The main thing is to relax and position yourself comfortably. You can spin
well with a good distance between your hands and the flyer orifice. The flyer
and flyer orifice are angled upwards, in the direction where you will naturally
position your hands during spinning, but having the yarn enter the flyer
orifice at an angle is not a problem.
Put the drive band in one of the three grooves of the pulley. The largest
diameter has the lowest ratio (1:6). You will get fewer twists per inch with the
same treadling speed compared to a higher ratio. With the drive band on the
smaller pulley diameters (ratio’s 1:9 and 1:13), you will get more twists per
inch, or you can spin more yarn length in the same time. The higher the ratio
the more power the treadling needs. This is where double treadling helps.
Guide a starter yarn through the
orifice, around the hook and
through the yarn guide slide. It
does not matter which side of the
flyer you use. Make a double knot
at the very end of the yarn and
insert it into the slot of the bobbin
core. Move the yarn guide to a
location where it will pull the yarn in
a direction the slot will hold the
knot.
By applying brake tension on the bobbin, you can control the tension on the
yarn. The flyer turns because it is connected to the pulley, which causes the
twist in the yarn. Since the yarn connects the bobbin to the flyer, the bobbin
will turn along with the flyer. The result is that you feel a pull on the yarn, and
by tightening the brake, you will increase this pull. When the bobbin fills up, it
will pull with a higher torque on the brake. If you want to keep the same
amount of pull on the yarn, you will need to increase the brake tension. This
also means that you will need more power to treadle as the bobbin fills up.
We recommend not to overload the bobbin.
To change a bobbin, you remove the brake band from the groove. Then
you pull the flyer with the bobbin out of the pulley.
