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Make Your Own Spinning Wheel!

January 3, 2009 by Terrye

Getting started on any new hobby can be expensive, and spinning is no different. Do I want a wheel or a drop spindle to start with? What fiber should I use. How much processing do I want to do myself?
Well, one of the most expensive purchases would be a new wheel, but if you don’t know whether you’ll like this new hobby or not, why not make a cheap inexpensive wheel?
Here, at Rabbit Geek, Franco gives very good instructions complete with pictures (pictures are good!) for making your own wheel out of cardboard, which he calls a Charkha.

He even has a video using the wheel as well as lots of resources for making other different kinds of wheels.

Check out his info on raising bunnies too, a great site!

So, now you’ve got your wheel all set up and have spun up your first hank. Now what?
You have to knit something out of that first yarn. Here’s a cute little dishcloth pattern you can knit up in no time!

Go to DigKnitty Designs for the pattern. She’ll even custom design patterns.

Next Pattern:

  • Make Your Own Marl with the Sprinkle Tee Knitting Pattern
  • Make Your Own Simple Summer Knit Top
  • Make Your Own Rainbow with the Rainbowgan Knitting Pattern
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»

Comments

  1. Roy Ford says

    January 3, 2009 at 12:35 pm

    I’ve been looking for a place to comment on building spinning wheels. I am a retired teacher who, looking for things to fill my time, happened upon “A Wool Gathering” at Youngs’ Dairy in Yellow Springs, Ohio. I was so sucked into the moment that as my wife and I left the parking lot I told her, I’m going to make a spinning wheel. Since then, I have been able to refurbish a few “Great Wheels” with both Minor’s Heads and Bat Heads but mostly Single Spindle-headed spindles. The most difficult part of making a spinning wheel is producing the actual wheel. My first endeavor from scratch was a decorative wagon wheel purchased from Harbor Freight Tools for around $15.00. The table, spindle post and legs were made from old lumber I had and chair legs from “dumpster diving”. I would find a chair thrown away because a leg was broken. I would disassemble the remainder of the chair and save the good legs, turned back spindles and seats. From this I got snagged into a lathe, which I absolutely love. Now I have redone three treadle wheels and have made “cigar box” charkhas for my four daughter’s christmas presents this year. (2008)
    One great idea I was told about was to make the drive belts for the charkhas from O-ring material. I could not find it anywhere. An old friend in the Hydraulics business told me to try Window Screen Spline. He said the composition of the spline was quite similar to the O-ring’s. I cut the spline to length with a long angle, to get more gluing area, and super glued the ends together. Voila! it worked like a charm.
    If anyone wants help with construction or ideas while building a wheel, let me know. I’ll be glad to help, if I can.

  2. Izzy says

    March 20, 2009 at 2:06 pm

    I was very excited to see this because I’ve been dying to find a faster way to spin. I have a top whorl drop spindle that I adore, but a wheel is out of my budget. I was just about to throw away this really sturdy box too so I plan on attempting this in the next few weeks. Thanks!

  3. Becky Jarvi says

    September 17, 2009 at 9:52 am

    Hi Roy, I met your sister Dorothy last weekend at the Air Force reunion she attended. I’m a drop-spinner and knitter. We were at
    a table with a fellow who knits socks on an antique sock machine he inherited from his aunt. Funny, the conversations you can get into at a banquet.

    I have purchased two spinning wheels for grand daughters. I bought them from Arlene Grahm. You may know her and her shop, Fiberworks from the Wool Gatherings. I wonder if she knows you repair wheels? I’m hoping to get to the gathering on Saturday.

  4. Traveler says

    April 6, 2012 at 11:14 am

    This Spinning Wheel is very interesting. How much does it cost ?

  5. Terri Silva says

    August 3, 2012 at 1:00 pm

    Hi Roy, I would like to take you up on your offer of help. I want to build a spinning wheel and need a set of plans and how to instructions. Can you tell me where to find this. I have been using a drop spindle and I can’t afford to buy a spinning wheel. Any help would be appreciated. Could you email me the informaton? Thank you, Terri

  6. linda osienski says

    January 2, 2013 at 6:04 pm

    Hi,
    I would love to create my own spinning wheel. I’ve bike wheels and even the peddle, wheel, and table part to an old sewing machine that spins pretty smooth…I would love some ideas… because I’m not sure how a real spinning wheel works…
    thank you from,
    Have-plenty-of-junk-and-want-to-play-Linda

  7. Sarah White says

    January 7, 2013 at 11:21 am

    Linda, I would look on YouTube; I’ll bet someone has posted information on that…

Have you read?

Embellish Your Knit Dishcloth with Flowers

One great thing to knit when the weather is warm (or honestly any other time) is dishcloths and washcloths. They are fun and easy projects and a great way to play with new skills. Pretty washcloths make cleaning a tiny bit more fun, and they’re great to have on hand as a quick addition to a store-bought gift. 

The Daisy Delight Dishcloth from Yarnspirations is a fun one for using leftover bits of green in your cotton yarn stash. What looks like the bottom in the picture is actually the left side as you knit it, and each little color section is worked with its own ball of yarn, intarsia style. 

That’s a little fiddly for a washcloth, but the effect is cute, and it’s a simple way to learn the basics of intarsia knitting (as well as reading a chart) if you don’t already have those skills. 

One the knitting is done, you add the flowers with a bit of lazy daisy embroidery, which is really easy to do even if you’re not that into embroidery. You could also potentially add flowers in duplicate stitch if you’d rather. 

This may be the most work you’ve put into a dishcloth, but isn’t it adorable? It would be fun to use as a hand towel through the spring and summer, and if you already have some leftover green yarn from other projects it should be pretty easy to do. 

You could also take this same concept and make it different colors. All dark green stems with stars on top might be reminiscent of Christmas trees, or brown with daisy stitch on top in different colors could be trees in the fall. 

However you stitch it, this looks like a fun little project for knitters who are comfortable with intarsia and reading charts or who are ready to try those skills. 

You can grab the free pattern from Yarnspirations. 

[Photo: Yarnspirations]

Book Review – Dishcloths for Special Days [Knitting]

Book Review – Holiday Knit Dishcloths

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