The Fine Art of Re-purposing

So, the last Guild meeting I went to, my friend, Dawn, was showing fancy hemstitiching. She brought a table loom, and several shuttles. One of the shuttles was a Little Man shuttle. I really liked it for a several reasons: It has an extra large bobbin area, the opening for the bobbin thread runs nearly the length of the shuttle, and it felt nice in my hand. When I got home and looked it up on www.villagespinweave.com, I liked it again because of the reasonable cost. So, I ordered one.
Since it has such a large bobbin area, the regular length bobbins don't really work. The size I got will take an inch bobbin (really just slightly longer) or two 4 inch bobbins. I had the 4 inch bobbins but wasn't really happy with using them for single threads. It will probably work well for doubled, (using the thread off both bobbins at once). Haven't tried that yet. Dawn had used the paper bottom from a coat hanger for a makeshift bobbin, and that works okay, but I really wanted something stronger.
I've always been one for wandering around hardware stores, poking into drawers, etc. just to see what I can find, but Lowes stumps me. It's just big. I decided to crowd-source my problem. I took a 4 inch plastic bobbin to work, and I must admit, I went to the engineer first. This is a re-purposing project, I said.
Chuck came out to my desk later that morning with the plastic bobbin in hand and said, "Solid fuel line." Buy it at the auto parts store. So, I stopped by the parts store on the way home. They told me they had no such thing, they didn't deal in solid fuel, and asked if my vehicle was fuel injected. Not too many minutes later, they understood that they had an odd one on their hands, they did not need engine size information, and decided what I needed was rigid brake line. I bought one in 12 inch size, since I needed nearly 9 inches.




I went by my mechanic's on the way home, he cut it off to size, took the brass nuts off, and flared the end. It works like a charm. The flare is not very wide, maybe 1/8 inch, but it's enough to keep the yarn from slipping off, and allows me to wind the shuttle easily.




I bought another the next day. It holds a ton of yarn, especially this 20/2 I'm working with now. The Little Man has a nice blunt end, the better to fly through the shed with, my dear, and when, on occasion I miss the catch, I can say, "Come back here, Little Man!"
I'm away from my loom for a while now, but Little Man and Bertha (the loom) will be waiting for me when I get back. Here's what I'm doing until then! Grandkids!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad