Final project

Portable Spinning wheel

The need

Last fall semester we had a small course on spinning in my school and I absolutely fell in love with it. We started out with a spindle and advanced to a spinning wheel when we had understood the principle of spinning. I spun with a traditional spinning wheel and with a more modern upright spinning wheel. I preferred the upright version so my teacher brought me a travel spinning wheel from an other department so that i could try that out too. It was an Ashford model and relatively small and handy to take to go so I started googling the prices.That was a mistake, I almost fell from my chair. The Asford's models are really expensive and there are not so many global or local manufacturers that make spinning wheels let alone travel ones. I got an old spinning wheel from my mother but the problem with those are that they're really big and hardly not portable. A spindle is of course easy to take along, but I would really like to have a proper spinning wheel that's just as easy to grab on the go.

The inspiration

I started looking for small spinning wheels that people had made by themselves or have had made by local carpenters or other craftsmen. I found a lot of models. The spinning wheel in the first picture is the Asford one I tried at school and which started all this. My absolute favorite is the one called pumpkin. A 91-year-old carpenter made it for the lady hosting the blog i found it from based on her needs and general requirements for a spinning wheel. It measures only 17 inches and is extremely adorable. It isn't however not very portable, since you can't take it apart. It's a solid piece. And what i wan't from my s.w. design is the same level of compact design with the capability to take it a part to make it really easy to take with me.

Asford Spinnig wheel
Gaskell spinning wheel, Kathryn
Pumpkin
Spinning wheel by SpinOlution
Pic from Pinterest, didn't have a source
Pic from Pinterest, didn't have better source than it's from Etsy
Spinning Wheel by Woolthing

The research

So after I had decided what size and shape I would like my laser cut spinning wheel to be, I started looking if there's already laser cut models or prints available. A company called Ponoko that makes laser cut spinning wheels called Electric Eel Wheel. They are electric spinning wheels, so you don't have to manually spin the wheel with your foot. That would be a great addition to my, yet not existing, design. The E.E.W.'s cost around 250$, which is again, really expensive. I couldn't find a whole lot more manufacturers outside Ponoko. There's a lot of models and pictures on Pinterest, but they don't have sources or the source is just Etsy so it's basically impossible to find whose the maker of the spinning wheel or the design of one. I expanded my search and just began to wonder around internet and found amazing tiny laser cut looms. I might have to look into that too. Tiny little tabletop loom would be so great. The laser cut loom on the picture below, is actually made in Fab Lab Amsterdam by Steven Sambell. There's also a webpage/project called Open source Jacquard Loom, where you have to sign up to look at the models. The OSLOOM in general is a project aimed at creating an open source electromechanical thread-controlled floor loom that will be computer controlled. The loom itself will be a Jacquard style loom. Jacquard looms allow for the individual control of each thread which in turn allows for photographic imagery to be woven. Jacquard looms like this exist commercially but they are very expensive (upwards of $30,000) which puts them out of reach for individuals and small educational facilities. The OSLOOM could be produced way more economically than that and truly revolutionize what the studio weaver could accomplish. The idea of a DIY open source loom is one that not only artists could benefit from but many individuals and learning centers could gain a resource by building one of these looms as well. So might sign up for that and keep an eye out for updates on the matter. Pinterest is of course filled with pictures of self made looms also, but the sources are just as bad. There were many pictures of really tiny laser cut hand weaving looms that were absolutely adorable. There are a wide number of sellers in Etsy who make those small looms for relatively cheap price.

A complete E.E.W.
The parts for E.E.W.
The electrics of an E.E.W.
A small laser cut loom by Steven Sambell
Tiny tiny hand weaving loom from Pinterest

Laser cut niddy-noddy

The need

If the term "niddy-noddy" seems srange, let's start with some wiki-info. So, a niddy-noddy (plural niddy-noddies) is a tool used to make skeins from yarn. It consists of a central bar, with crossbars at each end, offset from each other by 90°. The central bar is generally carved to make it easier to hold. Either one of the crossbars will have a flat edge to allow the skein to slide off, or will be completely removable. Again there aren't so many manufactures who make these, in Finland we have only one, Toika, whose niddy-noddy is on the picture on the left. They cost quite a lot 'cause there's no real competition. The other big manufacturer whose niddys you can buy in Finland, is of course Ashford, but they are just as expensive.

The inspiration

With a quick google search and some pinning on Pinterest I found a lot of pictures about laser cut niddy-noddys and immediately decided to make my own design, made to fit my hand perfectly. The key in making a good niddy-noddy is to have the other end either turnable or like the wiki article said, with a flat edge so it's easier to take the ready skein off. In many design this had not been taken into consideration. Not even in the laser cut Asford model. I found many of the laser cut models also quite harsh on their design, and by that I mean not hand friendly. I want to make it as comfortable to use as possible. There were also many instruction on niddy-noddys made out of PVC-pipe, but those models have a tendency to get loose and bend.