Spanish Peacock Australian Cypress Top Whorl

Snapped up in an Etsy rush. Super light, makes frog hair. Absolutely gorgeous grain. I love the twisted hook, it holds the single very nicely.

Australian Cypress whorl and hard maple shaft.
15 grams (+/- .5g) .5 ounces
2 1/8" diameter whorl
8" shaft, 7" below the whorl (going up against the whorl), just over 1/4" diameter
8 1/2" from top to bottom

The man is a genius with wood. The way the flow of the grain echoes and complements the shape of the spindle is just beautiful. The pale maple shaft shows just a bit of darker grain in elongated swoops along its length. The Australian Cypress is a warm yellow-brown, a light honey swirl on one side with darker rings, with some smooth puddling on the other side. It's got a smooth matte finish.

The shaft flares lightly where it joins to the whorl. There's a finial top and bottom. Would need a quill to slip the cop off without unwinding, but it didn't catch at all. The whorl is deeply concave on the bottom, slightly scooped on the top.

The hook brass-coloured metal, twisted in a corkscrew that works amazingly well. Pretty much my favourite hook style now. It lets the single come straight up from the shaft but still keeps it on (about a quarter circle clockwise). No notches, but between the hollowed out underside and the corkscrew hook it doesn't seem to need any bracing.

Rim-weighted but light overall. Very fast spin but not a whole lot of momentum. Makes amazingly thin yarn. Purely a frog-hair spindle.

Spun BFL (was going for too thick, couldn't keep spinning), pure merino (made three-ply thread beautifully), 80/20 merino/silk (aiming too thick again).


In use:


Original Etsy Listing
Spanish Peacock Shop
Spanish Peacock Website

Grizzly Mountain Arts Mini Top Whorl

Bought from Etsy in a mad dash. Beautiful but the wrong kind of spin for my fingers. Destashing. and best for fine yarns. Incredibly speedy spin but backspins fairly quickly when trying to do high-twist/thick yarn.

Thuya Burl whorl and Cocobolo shaft
1.1 ounces (31 grams)
2" diameter whorl
7 3/4" shaft, 1/4" diameter, 6" below the whorl.
Just under 8 1/4" top to bottom.

Gorgeous glow to the wood. The grain is smooth on both, honey-brown on the whorl and dark shaft glowing reddish orange in places. Shaft is polished smooth, fairly slippery. The finial above the whorl has some nice subtle detail. Bottom is blunt, gently rounded.

Rim-weighted in theory but fairly dense, the rims are not super deep and the cocobolo shaft has some heft. Has a long-lasting but not extremely fast spin. The notch is in the top and bottom of the whorl rim, quite secure. I like the notch at the bottom for holding things in very nicely but it was sometimes catching when I was winding on. Would be easy to get used to.

Two notches near the top of the shaft work great for holding the beginning of the yarn when first winding on. There are notches at the bottom of the shaft as well, not too deep. Would catch if I was trying to slide the cop without a quill of some kind.

Hook is brass-coloured metal, bent in a gentle swoop with a loop at the end that can catch the yarn sometimes but again would be easy to get used to. The hook is perpendicular to the notch, with the notch on the right if you are looking down with the back towards you.

Spun on it with undyed BFL and 80/20 merino/silk. In both cases I was drafting too fast. Possibly want a more rim-weighted one, maybe slightly heavier.

Bare:


In use:


More Flickr pics
original Etsy listing
Grizzly Mountain Arts shop
Grizzly Mountain Arts blog