Knitting Merges With Woodworking: We Made Our Own Nostepinder

It was nostepinder night at Knitting! We started with some blanks of cherry wood that my DH had cylinderized to make it go quicker (in case our wood turning took longer than we figured it might). Trish was the first to start out at the Jet mini-lathe. DH bought this pretty baby a short while ago, and put it on a rolling stand to make it easy to move into the optimal turning position. Lucky for us, we had a beautiful January night with no rain or wind, and a balmy temperature in the low 70’s. Yay!

Tricia perfecting the turn

She chose to put in a few little coves and beads on her nostepinde. We used Easy Tools for this work, and everyone seemed to be very happy with them.

applying some grit

Trish was a natural. After forming the tool and adding some unique flourishes, she sanded it with a couple of different grades of paper, and DH helped put on a linseed oil finish and cut it off with the parting tool.

Tricia and her brand new nostepinde that she just finished making a moment ago!

Next, Ethel took on the mini-lathe.

Ethel roughing out the pinde

While she was sanding, Lois drove up. She showed us a bowl that had been made from a beech tree in their own front yard. Marvelous workmanship!

Lois with beech wood bowl

Ethel and her finished nostie

Ethel was very satisfied with her functional work of art and was eager to get right into center-pull yarn ball winding.

Ready, set, wind!

Now we were ready to wind. Just for more clarification, we watched a great You-Tube video about how to wind the yarn by Noreen Crone-Findlay. I have watched this so many times now, I almost know it by heart. Noreen mentioned that her husband had made that particular nostie, and we loved the shape and design burned into the wooden handle. And thanks to Kathleen Cubley at Knitting Daily blog, whose irresistible post on Discovering New Tools awakened me to the possibility that we, too, could have our own personal, individually-crafted nostepinder! I’ve been wanting to merge knitting with woodworking all last year, and this was the perfect chance to make it happen! A fabulous start to an artsy-craftsy new year!

Ethel is making a cowl out of the Red Heart Boutique Magical yarn that was featured on the cover of Love of Knitting magazine, and was the article in their Knit-a-long. A truly gorgeous purple and gray, thick and thin, sparkly and matte combination yarn!

Aslan Tango ball giftie from Ethel

She gave me a skein of acrylic/polyamide Tango yarn that she had wound into a center-pull ball using a size 35 needle for a nostepinde, prior to making the actual tool tonight! Thanks, Ethel!

Tricia and her knitted afghan

Trish almost made it out the door without showing off her WIP, a beautiful knitted afghan of white and many colors. Inspiring! Thanks to everyone for coming to Knitting and making it so fun. Looking forward to many yarny adventures in 2013.

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