New Spinning Wheel!

My H is awesome. He ordered a new Kromski Fantasia for me! He bought it from The Woolery, Nancy and Chris are awesome to work with. My wheel was shipped quickly and came in perfect condition.

My husband opted for the unfinished version of the Fantasia, so I had the pleasure of picking out my own stain. I've never really worked with wood finishing stain, usually the stains I work with are toddler derived. I was pretty excited about picking my own finish and off to Lowes I went. Dude, I have never been so confused, there were so many primers, stains and pre stains, who knew there were so many varieties? I finally settled on a two in one from Minwax in a shade called "Bombay Mahogany". I came home and unboxed my wheel........I don't think it was until that moment that I realized that I was in way over my head. There were so many little parts and I was really overwhelmed.

After about 3 hours of trial and error I finally had every piece stained. I left it all to dry, hoping that in the morning I'd finally get to put my wheel together. I don't have a picture of the wheel parts after I stained them, I wish I had thought to take one. I had the flyer, the footmen and the bobbins hanging form our dining room chandelier. It was a lovely and odd sight.

Finally, everything for my Fantasia was dry. I gathered my tools and the instructions and went to work. Having put my Schacht Ladybug together on my own, I figured I was well qualified to put together my Fantasia. Oh boy was I wrong. There were so many parts and screws. 

I tried working the with the paper instructions but found them lacking, so I went online and found this tutorial from the New Voyager Company. In the video, the gentleman tells you that putting together a Fantasia spinning wheel is "easy" and should only take around 30 minutes. Let me tell you a secret, that gentleman, with his kind eyes and easy smile is.....well he's a liar. My wheel was not easy to put together, there were parts that didn't quite fit and even though I consider myself to be generally handy with tools, this wheel kicked my butt. If it's at all possible and in your wheel budget, buy the wheel already stained and make sure you know what you're getting into when you put it together.

After 2 and a half hours.....my Fantasia was FINALLY put together. 

I haven't spun much on her yet, I'll put up a review in a few days and let you know how it goes.