Hankering for Yarn

Tools for spoolknitting with the baler twine: Test driving different loop lifters

by Noreen on October 26th, 2006

Our morning started with our beloved greyhound

walking into the dining room while we were having breakfast in the kitchen. He then did a ‘Linda Blair’ of epic proportions.

Holy smoke, greyhounds have astonishing fluid sharing capacity! Poor baby. Poor Jim……. I ran to get the window open to clear the air, expressing dismay and revulsion, and Jim cleaned it all up……… my hero!

Ah, a day in the life of a dog loving couple….. ugh.

Anyhow…. just moments before, I had taken a pic of our lovely boy, next to a heap of baler twine

He was looking fine then……..

And he’s fine now…..

thank goodness.

Anyhow………. because the baler twine is mighty hefty stuff, I have been musing on which loop lifters are the best choice.

So, I decided to try out my usual favorite group of loop lifters and see how each of them fared with the baler twine.

Oh…. just a note here about the size of the spoolknitter that I am working with: I am working with 2 strands of baler twine held together (used baler twine is tied in a loop to go around the bale of hay, so leaving them as loops and joining them is the fastest way to carry on. That means that you work with 2 strands held together). So, it’s a whopping thick strand, which means you need a ginormous spoolie:

You can see that the Mighty Mamma spoolie really is a big ‘un. If you click on

http://www.crone-findlay.com/Crone-FindlayCreationsMightyMammaSpoolies.html

and scroll down to the bottom of the page, you can see some of the other Mighty Mamma’s that Jim and I have made.

Here are the different loop lifters that I tested on the baler twine:

A steel crochet hook. Not a good choice for baler twine. It snagged in it and felt like it could break.

Great big turkey skewer. Good choice. Sturdy and strong.

A nutpick. They’re not as sturdy as they might seem. I have had some of them break when spooling… especially when they are cast out of cheaperino metal. Fine with yarn or fabric strips, but probably not so good long term with baler twine

This is one of the tools that we make to go with our spoolies and it worked a fair treat. It and the turkey skewer were definitely my favorite tools…….

and so I am using them to spoolknit the baler twine, that is going to become rugs.

When you first start spoolknitting with the baler twine, it’s pretty sproingy and rather nasty for a few rounds. Once you’ve got it going, it’s actually just great, and the cord is really quite pleasant. I’m tickled with it.

You can use other reclaimed materials in your spoolknitting and weaving, and I’ll talk about that in other postings.

Until then, keep lifting those loops………

hugs all round!

Noreen

www.crone-findlay.com

Share This

Related Stories

Spoolknitting Baler Twine: A great way to make a reclaimed/recycled rug
Test driving the new Cricket Rigid Heddle Loom-1
The Spoolknitted Baler Twine Bear is done…..
The Spoolknitted Baler Twine Bear can face the world!
Weaving Prayer and Healing Shawls on the Cricket Loom

POSTED IN: Creativity, inspiration, spool knitting and spoolknitting, weaving and handweaving and looms