Thursday, February 6, 2020

All about the base, the styles, the whys and wherefores


Over the years, the spindolyn base has gone through many iterations, as I have found myself wanting to spin in different seating situations. In order to clear up any confusion, thought I should go over them here. They are all, of course, interchangeable, and everyone has their favorites. These are just examples I pulled from some on hand in my Etsy store right now, and some from the past.
I started out with the castle base, which is a non-tilting base. It has a pedestal on the bottom held on  with a removable peg so that you remove it all together to make it shorter and slimmer, or make it taller by adding your own length of 3/8" dowel. You can see one similar to the original in the top photo. At one time, I offered a base called the "traveler" but found that the castle really served the same function. I make this solid non-tilting style in many shapes (thin, thick, wide, fat, whatever) and various native hardwoods now, as you can see below. This style works great on a cushioned seat between your legs, it is the one I reach for most when I am at the computer because it sits nicely while I am in an office chair.

         When lounging on the couch I wanted a base that could sit on top of my lap (out of the way of my little dog that crowds me) and also needed it to tilt for easier winding on. So that is when I came up with the open ambit style base. That is the one with the ball rolling around inside the cage as you see above in the title photo. I make many of these out of oak, for people who own an original oak spindolyn (from www.spindolyn.com) but sometimes out of cherry or walnut, too.

      The enclosed ambit castle style base is another tilting base, with the tilting part enclosed inside. It fits beside you or between your legs. I use this style when I am lounging in bed, having it beside me, and tilting it across me to spin and back the other direction to wind on. But also find it useful on the couch or between my legs. This base has some weight to it so it nicely stable and versatile, I mostly make it in an upright styling reminiscent of the original castle, but sometimes will make it on a square base.

    If you are the type of person who likes options, there is the the convertible ambit base style. With this tilting style, the tilting ball part comes out of the base, in case you want to put the peg in the base to prevent it from tilting, or you want to raise it up higher with a 3/8 inch dowel (of course, then it won't tilt any more) If you grab the whole thing too fast while on the move, the base may go flying apart.... But I have found, that the convertible ambit style is my favorite, specifically, the spindolyn that I can't put down right now is the one in the headline photo above with the ruby wool on it...I love this spindolyn! I am trying to figure out if it is the dainty size of the base, or the tilt..don't know yet, always have to keep studying them, but I can't seem to part with it.


 

And now on to the steady soft base which is absolutely the easiest for the beginner. The base is built inside the lined fabric square bean bag style base. It is surrounded by poly fill and poly fill beads, so that it sits anywhere you want it too, and can be tilted or stood straight up. 


Of course, you can always mix and match your bases and whorls, and you can request a different style base from me on my etsy store, or you can knit your own bean bag base (links to two different knitted bean bag base covers Here and Here
When I get some time, I hope to write up a sewing pattern.
If you have any questions about bases, whorls or anything else, feel free to ask!

 

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Ophelias Winter Adventure

 

When things get to be too much, even in the cold of winter, sometimes it is best to just take it outside to nature and get perspective back. As soon as I got Opehlia's needle felted winter coat done, we had a skift of snow, and out she went to play. 

  

The first thing she did was climb a snowy evergreen...this is when she realized that although her wool boots where warm, she really should have changed out of her skirt and into some britches.



 It was only a few minutes before Ophelia got bored with tree climbing and headed off into the woods to see what she could find. Look! An ice formation rising from a wild fllower base nearly as big as her!

 Yep, she's a climber all right!
This moss covered locust stump gives just enough of a challenging incline.

Be careful Ophelia! You have climbed pretty far off of the ground.

You know, it's probably a good idea before crawling into dark caves to have a flashlight and a companion.


That is probably not a very useful companion, then again.....

The ice is so beautiful and the sun is warming up.


All in all it was a lovely day, but time to take it back to the house.

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