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Day 9 of #100daysofspoolknittersandlittlelooms-Jane Austen Spool Knitter – How to Upcycle a cardboard tube into a spool knitter

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.



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