Thursday 7 February 2013

My Personal Progression in Bobbin Winders

A weaver winds countless bobbins, both for sectional warping and the shuttle itself.



I've worked my way up from a hand-cranked bobbin winder:



to a homemade style that served me well for well over 25 years:



When the motor on this one kept overheating, removing the lid became a permanent design improvement.

One blanket project requires a total of about 2,000 m of yarn wound onto larger bobbins for warping and then onto smaller bobbins that fit into the shuttle. Multiply that by a conservative 8-10 projects a year, and over all those years the used sewing machine motor installed into the homemade box probably wound close to 500 kilometres of yarn for me. Thank you!

This week I received in the mail the Cadillac of bobbin winders, an electric Leclerc model:



Like my earlier one, it operates with a foot control. More sophisticated models have a length counter and can hold the bobbin at each end, but this one is so smooth and easily controlled that I'm in heaven. I had to go back to my original hand winder for a week before it arrived, and my right bicep is still recovering.

A loom, shuttles and a few other accessories are obviously key to any weaver, but a well-functioning bobbin winder is equally essential and this new one I really appreciate.



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