One of the nicest things about my new studio is that it’s set to produce supplies for just myself. For years I’ve dyed pearl cotton. It’s beautiful and as a mercerized cotton, the colors are spectacular. But if I wanted to sell it to students I had to standardize it. I never could take the time to try different kinds of threads that didn’t come in a dyer’s hank.

Why? What’s the difference? A dyer’s hank is simply a looped ring of thread. It’s easy to dye it evenly. A twisted ball is much easier to handle, but it can’t be dyed evenly. You can move one to the other. It just takes to stinking long to do it commercially. And it’s hard to make every skein even in yardage.

So now that I’m not making thread for the general public, I can really experiment with threads that aren’t in dyer’s hanks: Sashiki thread, cotton boucle, several sizes of weaver’s pearl cotton, cotton hemp, and cotton yarn. It’s a bit heady. I’ve been stuck with one cotton thick thread. But the world is wide.

In light of that, I bought two thread wranglers and I’m wondering where they’ve been all my life. These are tools weavers, knitters and spinners know well. But not every quilter works with them. Unless you need to deal with thread. Lots and lots of thread.

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I’ve worked with a swift before, but this is lighter weight and much less bulky. This is my first time with a ball winder. I’m in LOVE!.

My 27 yard hanks of pearl cotton wind into a ball like these.

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The swift holds the hank, while the ball winder winds it into a tidy little pull skein ball. I’ve slipped a bit of cardboard through the hole to keep it from unraveling.

Later this week, I’ll be dyeing thread and fabric for the first time in the studio. I’ll keep you updated on how the new winding tools work with that.