Wrist Mounted Yarn Spool

myminifactory

This is a 3D printable wrist mountable hand cranked yarn spooling machine! It's designed with knitters and crocheters in mind, allowing them to keep their yarn close at all times. Please take a look through the photos to get an idea of how to assemble all the pieces. Feel free to ask any questions you have - I'm happy to help out. The entire ball of yarn shown is wrapped on the spool in the thumbnail photo. It was designed to use nylon strapping around your wrist, but my wife wants to knit a strap for it and I don't have one yet... I'll update the photos with a wrist strap as soon as I get one! You can print multiple spools for each type of yarn you have. Printing notes: the base part that mounts to your wrist was printed upside down with supports under the overhang for the nylon strap holes. It's designed in multiple pieces to avoid support material and allow for multiple color options. Assembly notes - you'll want to glue the two parts of the spool together, they fit nicely off the printer but I had mine pop apart on me while winding yarn. I used gorilla glue to attach the center spindle to the wrist base, the two spool pieces, and the cap on the bottom of the handle. Be careful not to bind the handle in place - it's designed to spin freely for easy winding. The handle and spool are keyed together so the spool doesn't slide around the handle. Remove the handle from its slot when you're done winding and loosely screw on the nut at the top. Don't tighten the nut too much or it'll self-tighten if it's in contact with the spool - keep it loose for best performance. When winding yarn on the spool, I ran it between my knees to maintain some tension on the line. The nicer you wind the yarn, the more you'll get on the spool! Tilt the spool back and forth while winding to guide the yarn smoothly from one side to the other. I'd love to hear your feedback - I know this could use some improvements but I'm hoping the community will use it and give me tips to make it better! Please feel free to ask questions if you have any - I can upload more photos if needed or modify parts as desired. Thanks for downloading this thing - I hope it's as useful as it sounds like it would be to a non-knitter!