My New and Improved Spindle

The Improvements?
I turned the "whorl" around; I took the wire off and replaced it with 6 hair ties; I made the hook open in the other direction, and voila! A nearly perfect, nearly free spindle! I stole the 6 hair ties from my daughters' hair-fixing drawer, so I still count all of this as free, LOL.

My reasons?
~Well, it winds so much better with the flat side of the empty beading-elastic spool facing the cop, duh. When it was the other way around, the winding-on process was a mess, as everything was slipping into the hollow back of the spool. Now, the cup faces up while spinning and it works great!

~The hair ties are much prettier than the knobby old wire, and this is plenty reason enough for me.

~The spun-fiber winds so much better with the hook facing the way it now faces. It was backwards before, and when I tried to unwind from the hook in order to wind onto the shaft, I just got all tangled up on the hook instead.

I'd like to be able to snip a bit off of the end of this hook, but I don't have the necessary cutting tool, darnit. This is a steel eye hook, what I had on hand. A small, brass eye hook would be much easier to work with, and it would look nicer too, but this steel one is all I had.

Near perfection. Ahhhh..... Try it!