finished spindle

This spindle is the elegant drawing tool I'd longed for: well balanced, easy functionally, beautiful when still and even more so when in use. The most elusive part, finding a mechanism for holding the lead securely and letting it go for sharpening, had a serendipitous solution after collecting a pile of various pencil parts, a couple days stare time, and a kitemaker. The rest of the tool was calibrated carefully for just the right line quality and wiggle. Handspinners tend to maintain a variety of spindles to spin various yarn weights. In the same way, my drawing tool can be adapted through variations in the whorl weight, balance and size; possibilities abound in adopting a more complex line vocabulary. For now, there is so much to say with just this.

future weaving

On the right: 656 yards plus of oatmeal-colored Blue Faced Leicester spindle spun.

This method of winding a ball I spotted in a book, and the image wouldn't go away until I tried it myself. It's far, far too time consuming; the large ball took over three hours to wind, but still . . . it's lovely to behold. . . and quite dense.

There's always more bits to share, but they seem to be ganging up on me lately.

sighting

An errant tangle revealed itself recently in another's studio, fortunately we were able to capture it in its natural environment before it scuttled off to some dark corner.