In my Day 7 post, I showed a gorgeous Paduak bowl that my brother Jonathan (@distinctivewoodworking) turned and then, I upcycled into a spool knitter since the bowl had developed a hole in the base while being turned. I have been working on getting set up for shooting a couple of how to videos for #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms, but I keep getting distracted by being inspired…
I started wondering about a walnut bowl (another one rescued from the firewood box – yay!) that he had sent me and so, instead of working on the videos, off I went to have a little visit with the drill press. I drilled a hole in the base that is larger than the rip out, then 8 holes for the pegs, and did a little sanding and glued in pegs.
Oh my word! It’s so beautiful! I couldn’t resist drawing and burning a butterfly on it, as I could see a whisper of a butterfly in the grain of the wood.
Lovely! Just lovely!!!
#100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms is making my heart very happy!
Butterflies make me feel hopeful. May we all live in hopeful times!
If you’d like to make a large spool knitter without woodworking tools, and have a few crafting tools, then you can make yourself a spool knitter that is uniquely yours and pleasing to work with.
You need a sturdy core for the body of the spool knitter. I wound off some jute string onto a bobbin to free up a cardboard tube.
It’s 1 1/2 inches/4 cm in diameter (yours can be any diameter that you happen to have) and 4 1/4 inches/10.5 cm tall.
I bought a little bag of bamboo lolly pop sticks in the candy making aisle of the grocery store (craft stores sell them too). They’re 1/4 inches/.5 cm in diameter and 5 inches/25 cm tall.
Mark 1 1/2 inches (4 cm) from the end of 6 (or however many you want) of them.
Line up the marks so they stick out from the end of the tube.
Glue the dowels to the outside of the tube with hot glue.
Now, mix up some wallpaper glue or thin some white glue.
Tear up paper and glue layers of it to the spool knitter.
My Homage to Jane Austen spool knitter is one of the unexpected delights that has unfolded for me because of my project, the #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms. A couple of weeks ago, I picked up 4 old encyclopedias at the Re Use centre to use in papier mache projects.
What a thrill to find an article about Jane Austen in one of them. I immediately pulled her pages out and carefully tore them into sizes and shapes to fit the spool knitter. Then, I gleefully glued them on.
I waited overnight for the papier mache to dry and then added a little bit of color with water color pencil crayons and Mod Podged it.
I am absolutely delighted with my Homage to Jane Austen spool knitter!
#100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms has given me a lovely gift!
BTW- there are benefits of working with ‘larger than usual’ spool knitters and I will be showing those in upcoming posts.
Day 6 of #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms-Upcycling thrift shop bowls into spool knitters
I have been working on a whole bunch of things for #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms all at once and have gotten all out of order on doing posts.
Back on Day 6 of #the100dayproject2026 I started working on a series of posts about upcycling to make spool knitters.
Last summer, when I was talking with my brother Jonathan (@distinctivewoodworking) about co-creating different sizes and shapes of spool knitters, I mentioned that I often make larger than what people usually expect spool knitters to be by upcycling thrift shop bowls.
He and his son, Kieran turn a LOT of gorgeous bowls on the lathe.
Sometimes, there are ‘oops’ and a bowl goes boink and gets tossed into the firewood box.
Jonathan said: Do you want some of those to make into spool knitters?
YES yes yes, I shrieked.
So I showed him how I take an unloved bowl from the thrift shop
and sand off the varnish (because usually, the varnish on thrift shop bowls is in tough shape).
And, I drill a big hole in the base, then 6, 7 or 8 holes for pegs,
Then I glue in pegs and I draw & burn on it, paint it, varnish it and Voila!
Start spool knitting with it!
I remembered to take pics of the process with the first bowl, but doh, completely forgot to do that with the second one.
Hurrah for upcycling! I’ll be posting lots more about upcyling things to make spool knitters.
And, yes, lots of posts about what you can make with spool knitters. As I said to Jonathan today:
Context and content! Spool knitters are just shelf warmers if they don’t have a good project or 10 to inspire people to pick them up and start creating with them! So… yes…. lots of projects will be unfolding as I trundle forward with #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms
Day 7 of #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms-Upcycling one of a kind bowls into spool knitters
For the #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms, Jonathan sent me a box of spool knitter blanks and some bowls that were damaged when he and his son Kieran turned them on the lathe.
A Paduak pot pourri bowl has been singing to me since I opened the box, and finally, today, I drilled a hole in the base that is larger than the rip out, then 7 holes for the pegs, and did a little sanding and glued in pegs.
I was utterly gobsmacked by how freaking gorgeous it is, and there is no way that I am going to I draw or burn on it! I put a light coat of walnut oil on it, so I have to let it dry over night before I can start spool knitting with it!
I tore over to the computer and fired off a ‘WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE’ message to Jonathan to tell him how I am absolutely swooning over this glorious spool knitter. Wow. Just wow….
I also informed Jonathan that he is a bad influence, because the two of us just keep whipping up more and more ideas and I can barely keep up! I love feeling inspired! and #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms is definitely doing that for me!
Day 8 of #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms-A BooBoo Bear
I spent the day, hard at work on delicious new things so I could catch up on posting Days 6 & 7 of #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms and it’s all VERY exciting and yay and I am looking forward to actually doing those posts.
BUT…. my ‘little’ brother (he’s a whole lot younger than me), Jonathan (@distinctivewoodworking) threw me for a loop…. eegads and little fish! He sent me a photo of truly yikes-ness….. he was trying to push through on meeting deadlines and completing projects and he cut the heck out of the palm of his hand.
I was aghast. We are a ton of miles apart (several provinces away) so I couldn’t rush over and try to be useful, so my response was to revert to my ‘love language’, which is ‘Teddy Bear’.
I immediately drew, then burned and painted this ‘BooBoo Bear’ and took this pic and sent it to him.
He thought that it should be called: Injured and Grumpy Because of It Bear.
Please send him healing energy!
And, I ‘ll get back to work on the projects that I am working working working working on to get myself back in sync with the ##the100dayproject2026 timeline.
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