Little Louie

Meet Little Louie, my new love. It wasn't love at first sight, but I must admit to being, well, on the look out, so to speak. I love my Lendrum, but it is getting old (30 years) and only has one foot treadle, while all the young ones have two. And Little Louie is small, cute, only 14.25" tall . and weighing in at 8 lbs. Louie comes with his own suit, a bag custom fit with pockets for all his bobbins and bits. And get this, Little Louie, in his suit, just happens to fit within the airline carry-on limits! He is born to travel!
He also comes with 3 ratios 6:1, 8.5:1 and 13:1. Sweet. But what I really love about him is his engineering smarts. The bobbin fits to the frame by a clever metal rod and magnets. So it is very easy to pull it off and change the bobbin or to pack him up for travel. The foot treadle to wheel attachment pulls off a centre bolt and a lever is pulled to allow the frame and wheel to collapse down to the treadles. The flyer metal rod then fits into a hole under the treadle and everything is ready for the suit. Nifty!
So when I saw a class mate at Olds, using the Louet Victoria and I commented on it, she let me know she had two and one was for sale. I hummed and hawed but realized I needed one, bought it and renamed it Little Louie. And then it happened. I used Little Louie for only an hour or two when I realized what a darling he was and how lucky I was to have met up with him. And then I read Abby's review. Yes, THE Abby Franqemont has one and she too loves hers. You can read about her love affair with her Victoria here.

[Photo: Spindle kit.  3 spindles support bowl ]

I was very tempted to pack Little Louie with me to take to Scotland. Very tempted. After all, he fits in carry-on luggage. But 4 people in a small rental car with luggage and needed room for purchases, i decided to take my have-spindle-will-travel kit.
I can fit 3 spindles: drop, takhi and Russian support spindle, plus fibre, plus a support bowl (the lid is actually a wooden support bowl turned upside down that fits perfectly as a lid.

[Photo: Spindles, bowl and a selection of
silk to spin]