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My cell phone died this week. It died a natural death, one of old age, and I’m a bit proud of that. You see I “accidentally” washed my previous two cell phones. They did not die naturally at the ripe old (electronic) age of 2 years or so. They died when I left them in my jeans and ran the phone (and the jeans) through the wash. The first time I did this I honestly thought it was an accident; a careless mistake. The second time it happened, not quite a year later, I realized I was expressing my resentment at all cell phones by murdering them on laundry day.

But not my last one. That phone died from being dropped on asphalt about 400 times. Also from a battery that just wouldn’t hold a charge anymore. I managed to keep my cell phone murderous impulses under control for two whole years. Yay me. But it was time to get a new cell phone and if there is one thing I hate more than my phone its having to spend money to replace it.

How much money? Ahh! I’m so glad you asked because that leads me (finally) to the subject of this post. I did not spend much at all. $79.99 to be exact. That got me this Galaxy Core prime thingy.

(By a sheer not-at-all-coincidence my last phone, the one that died naturally, cost me $79.99 as well. It was some basic touch screen LG model. That’s where I am in the cell phone market, about eighty bucks.)

In my torturous mission to purchase, and set up, my new cell phone I have come to realize just how much you people are paying for those new model iPhones. Unbelievable. You really paid $600 to $700 for a freaking phone? Do you know what you can buy with $600 to $700?

A new spinning wheel.

That is my Louet S10 wheel. It currently will run you between $662 and $761 depending on which features you get. Its quite the nice “starter” wheel and by starter I mean you will be using for the rest of your life.

But that isn’t your only option. Most “starter” wheels for starting handspinners are right in that same price range, like The Minstrel, a beautiful castle-style wheel by Kromskis.

Now admit it, that’s gorgeous. An instant heirloom. And it does more than look pretty. It makes yarn. 

Here are all the reasons why a spinning wheel is a better purchase than a iPhone:

• They make yarn. I feel that bares repeating. That stuff that we buy, that we can’t seen to buy enough of… yarn? These magical devices will make you all the yarn you want.

• It will last longer than 2 years. Baring major household disasters, it will last longer then you. Your family will fight over who gets you spinning when you pass on.
• Once you are confident at handspinning you can spin and carry on conversations at the same time. You will not be one of those rude phubbers ignoring your friends because your phone bleeped at you.
• It may not fit in your pocket but neither do those new iPhones from what I can see. I take both of my spinning wheels places all the time.
• Which leads me to my final selling point: when you take your wheel out in public and play with it, that public will be curious, amazed, and in awe of what you are doing. When you take out your cell phone in public no one freaking cares.

I’m telling you, the next time your phone dies go get a cheapie phone from Walmart and use the cash you saved to buy a spinning wheel. A wheel will be come a treasured friend, a centerpiece of your living room and in your crafting life. And you will never, ever, accidentally/on purpose run it through the washing machine.