Monthly Archives: March 2026

About 30 years ago, I bought a small loom online and the seller tossed in an old spool knitter. Ooh! it had a face on it! My childhood spool knitters were spools with nails and NO faces. That little face on a faded old spool knitter inspired me. I thought: I could make dolls with spool knitting!

Ever since, I have been designing spool knitters and spool knitting. Hmm: Why only 4 nails? Can spool knitters be bigger? How can I use spool knitters in unexpected ways to make fun and useful things?

As a child, I loved spool knitting, and competed with my siblings to wheedle more yarn from our mother and grandmothers so we could furiously keep spool knitting. We would eye each other’s spool knitting to see who had the biggest ball of spool knitting and the longest cord. It never occurred to us that the spool knitting could actually become something useful!

Last summer, I wondered if my nephew, Kieran, (who is training in woodworking with his Dad) might be into turning spool knitters on the lathe. I suggested to my master woodworker brother Jonathan (@distinctivewoodworking), that we co-create some spool knitters. And, so we are working together (even though we live almost 4000 Km apart) to make wonderful, one of a kind spool knitters. (and small looms- but those are still in the ‘R&D’ stages).

I’ve made 3 tutorials showing to make papier mache spool knitters as well.

AND most important! I have been working on fun designs for things for people to MAKE with the spool knitted cords, because after all, you can infuriate your sibs by having a bigger, better, longer spool knitted cord than they do, but really- there’s a lot more fun to be had than just one upmanship in the realm of sibling rivalry. 🙂

And now, I’ll get back to work editing photos and finishing projects and writing instructions…. more will be unfolding as my 100 day project moves along.