The Moirai, aka the Parcae, or, in English, the Fates, compelled me to get a new spinning wheel. Even before I tried to start spinning on my recently unmothballed Ladybug and figured out that I needed a new drive band, I was already obsessing about getting a Majacraft Aura. It started with searching for a bulky flyer kit for the Ladybug and finding that I’d have to drop over $400 to get it. (That’s only $200 more than I paid for the Ladybug wheel itself.) I had also been thinking about buying a loom, because I really want to learn to weave as well. So, I was already considering spending a good bit for more equipment soon, and then when I got my new spindles and starting trying to spin, I realized, hey, it’s going to be a while before I can manage to spin anything decent again, so I put the two together and out popped the Majacraft Aura, an awesome wheel capable of producing art yarn out of the box. It was so fated that a guy named Diogenes delivered it to my house.

So, why the Aura? Simply this: the promise of the one wheel to rule them all. The Aura is designed for spinning art yarn, but because of its flexible tensioning and ratio settings, it actually spins everything from bulky art yarn to lace straight out of the box with the hybrid flyer and jumbo bobbins (which is the configuration I chose). The lace kit is less than $200, for those who want to make lace spinning easier. And, should I ever get the urge to make humongous art yarns for art’s sake, the overdrive head and kit is the same price as the bulky flyer kit for the Ladybug.

Why not just stick with the Ladybug? I have no desire to spin normal, consistent yet boring yarn. It’s a lot easier to just buy that kind of yarn, and even if I wanted handspun, there are plenty of spinners out there with yarn to sell. While I was able to make some bulky yarn with my Ladybug, I did also meet up with some irritations and limitations in doing so. First among these is the awful curved (not L shaped) flyer hooks (see below) that more than once grabbed onto and held up the uptake of big, bulky yarns onto the bobbin. I also had to buy the slow whorl separately because the Ladybug comes only with the fast and medium whorls. Granted, the whole spread of ratios of those three whorls is broader than the one whorl that comes on the Aura out of the box, but the ratios on that one Aura whorl are the range I actually use. All in all, I think I was just ready to move on to a nicer wheel with more options.

Against my manic nature, I shopped around a bit and found an exclusive Majacraft dealer in the U.S. who offers the Aura both at a lower price than others and with free shipping to the continental U.S. Jen Johnson of Whispering Pines Farm offers a standard head build with the hybrid flyer and three jumbo bobbins and an overdrive head build with the overdrive flyer and one overdrive bobbin. Jen will also work with you set up a customized Aura build that takes a little longer to ship from the Majacraft factory in New Zealand. Her YouTube channel hosts an Aura playlist that features unboxing and assembly videos for the wheel.

Shipping was super fast, and I couldn’t be happier with my new wheel. I love its complexity (compared to the Ladybug) because I feel that more solutions to my spinning problems come with that flexibility.

A new drive belt for the Ladybug is on its way. I will try to sell it locally, since I got rid of its box years ago. I will miss my old buddy but can’t wait to really get started spinning on my new Aura.