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!

4 comments:

Becky said...

I can't believe there aren't any comments!! This is ingenius!!!
By the way, what was the size of dowel that went through the whole of the spool? Becky

Rosemary said...

You are too nice! I think that the dowel is a 3/4 inch Oak Dowel. It fits perfectly - very snug, but the spool can be removed if need be. Enjoy!

Rosemary said...

Oh, what was I thinking! It's a 3/8 inch dowel, not a 3/4 inch. Kinda a big difference there.....

Helaine said...

Hi Rosemary
I am very impressed with what you have made on your blog. I am going to have to try a bead spool as I have a near empty one now.


Helaine