Ever Heard of a Nostepinne?

I hadn't until last weekend on Earth Day when I went with the family on a short tour of some local artisan's studios. There were two specifically fiber related studios so we pretty much hit those two and then headed back home.

The first studio was my favorite. It's called Kiparoo Farm. There were lambs and sheep of all sorts, some sweet little Araucanian chicks and a whole passel of plain old white chickens as well. So the kiddies were happy to bond with nature while I browsed around the store.

Here's a pic hubby snapped. Most of the really good stuff was around the corner unfortunately - but you get the idea.



Here's me with the really nice owner lady Annie. Please ignore my hideous sunglasses. I couldn't find my super cool pair that make me look like Kate Moss. ;)



And here's the bag of goodies I walked out with - some lovely gorgeous yarns, all different shades of greens, all different textures etc. I'm going to make a garter stitch wrap on some big needles. Just something to show off the yarn.



Here's the shop dog Ren. She's about fourteen years old and a real sweetie. My kiddos loved her.



I found out later that probably the reason that they so cheerfully left me to browse in peace was because they were outside, following Ren all over the farm filming her with their cameras. On the way home my son said, "I got some video of Ren pooping!! Hello YouTube!!" So I guess everyone had an exciting Earth Day. :)

Anyhow...(I sure do know how to make a short story long, eh?)...about the Nostepinne. At Kiparoo we saw a sign telling about Nostepinnes but they were all sold out. Annie explained that it was a wooden tool that you could use to wind yarn cakes. This site tells how that works better than I could. When we got home, hubbs and I looked Nostepinnes up on the computer, found some pictures as examples and then he scampered off to his workshop and made one for me on his lathe.



You can read more about how he made it on his turning blog: Beads and Coves. Not bad for a guy who has only been wood turning for a few months now.

PS - You are totally allowed to giggle at the fact that he mentions the word "shaft" twice in his post. I mean, come on, look at that thing! :)