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Do It Yourself

Last week, Ella found the bag of fiberfill and started rolling it on the carpet to make something somewhat yarn-like. She wanted to knit with it, but since she was rolling it back and forth instead of twisting it, it wasn't really strong enough.

Daddy remembered that when he was a boy, he made a drop spindle and learned to spin with it. He offered to make a drop spindle for Ella, and tonight after dinner, we went down to the shop.

We put together some found objects: a scrap of wood, a long thin bolt, a scrap piece of copper wire, some electrical tape, the only two nuts we could find that fit the bolt, and a very small nail. It's not perfect but it works.

We grabbed a handful of fiberfill, and twisted some thread by hand -- enough to tie to the spindle, wrap around the shaft, and slip through the hook. Then we started spinning. Ella did some of the spinning, but fiberfill was really not intended for this, so it's hard to use and makes very unforgiving thread. Ella decided that a "drop spindle" is so named because the thread breaks and the spindle drops, probably on your foot.

Then we trebled the spun thread, let it wind itself into a cord, and tied off the ends. We now had almost 12 feet of twine.

Now Ella was ready to knit.

She suggested finger knitting, but couldn't find the book. She told Mom that we could probably find instructions on the internet, and she was right, a minute later Mom and Ella were watching video instructions for finger knitting. Five minutes later, Ella had knit a bracelet from twine that was loose fiberfill about an hour earlier.

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