I am still testing the newest spindle design, even though I had a batch run, something was still off, but I couldn’t put my finger on what bothered me. I was having trouble getting a good spin. I thought maybe it was weight, but it didn’t improve as the cop of yarn increased. So I looked at the head, and decided to thin down the top. I used my oscillating drum sander, and with the curve of the drum was able to make just the top of the spindle concave rather than convex.

This small change made a huge difference. My fingers now had more contact with the surface of the top of the spindle and I could get it spinning much easier. The grooves left by the rough sandpaper also aided my grip, so I think I will not sand that part smooth. I now need to be careful not to spin the spindle so fast that it flies up sideways, unwinds itself, and falls to the ground. I probably dropped the spindle a dozen times on my walk; there are a couple marks, but it did not break, even when hitting asphalt.

I will sand down the rest of the spindles, then before posting them to Etsy, I still need to develop a decoration and packaging. Development is slow, but inching forward!