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:

  1. 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

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  2. 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!

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

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  4. 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

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