Got a Skewer? Got Some Cotton Balls? You Can Spin!


Good news! I have the maidens/mother of all in place and most of the way cured. The orafice is looking spiffy(gotta trim it though). Not counting tweaking of whorls, the wheel's just about finished!

Now on to the headline. Well, I got good news that the twisted cotton ball is indeed yarn! Ooh-la-la, I feel fancy! Wait, there's more! So after starting a thread about it(cause didn't think it would be yarn), got a ton of 411 about spinning. So, logic told me(but I couldn't trust my logic, since it's normally fuzzy, like an angora bunny!) that the original spinners didn't have even a spindle. Received confirmation of my suspitions, and tons of 411 about spindles(much of which I already knew, but it's cool, cause 1/2 of me is an expert, but the other 1/2 is inexperienced, it's a paradox of sorts).

Most of my spinning knowledge comes from research, and an incredibly small ammount from actually spinning. I cop to it.

So after Di suggested a navajo spindle, I looked around for anything around the house that even vaguely resembles a navajo spindle(I used too much of my dowel for my flyer, and I don't have any sheet wood, but could make the base of polymer clay I suppose). Found! A package of bamboo skewers!

A bamboo skewer, spinning of the tip, works just dandy, but since I didn't notice a difference between spinning it on my thigh and twirling it in my fingers, well, since it's more comfy for me, I twirl it in my fingers.



  
Click for a high-res pic which will let you see the detail

My drafting could definitely be more even, but still, it's yarn!

This week bamboo has been my saving grace twice. Once in bracing the MOA to the center post(bamboo skewer + glue in a drilled hole + a piece of bamboo from a plant stake under the piece of acrylic, to make it nice and sturdy without increasing weight by too much), and once in making a twirly finger spindle(well, not making, just using as).

Hooray for bamboo!