My friend wanted something to hold her ball of yarn while crocheting and we came up with this. She liked hers so much that she wanted more to give to her friends with personalized designs on them. This is the one I made for me using the one sided walnut from Home Depot. The design is the pentacle from my upcoming tarot deck.
My friend found a clip with a swivel in the center and attached it to the top so that it can spin if it needs to, then attached it to a wrist strap. I’m going to try just using a leather string and see if the spin bothers me. (whenever I get to crochet again! )
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Columbia-Forest-Products-5-32-in-x-1-ft-x-1-ft-7-in-PureBond-Walnut-Plywood-Project-Panel-10-Pack-5107/312981163
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Thanks for the share! I have a couple friends who do a lot of crocheting. I haven’t crocheted in years myself, although I still have all of my hooks. But how does the ball go on there? They’re usually wound pretty tight. Or does the skein of yarn go on it without winding it into a ball?
And do you ever wonder why all the time is spent changing it from a skein to a ball anyway? I know the ball makes it easier to have it unwind as you use it, while the skein makes it easier to store. But the hassle! I remember well holding my hands out as my mom would wind the yarn around them from the skein, and then rewind it yet again into a ball, which invariably would get dropped and roll across the floor! Oh, the memories!! 
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She is using the crochet balls with cardboard tubes in them, so those are easy on, easy off. we experimented with shoving a longer shaft through a commercial skein, which worked, but she wanted to stick with this size.
My ball winder is the size of a toilet paper tube, so one of those goes on before I wind a skein into a ball.
I held skeins for my grandmother. You are correct. this won’t work with a hand wound ball with no center core. An early test model had a pointed tip instead of a round one, but that didn’t work well to go through a compact ball, so the pointy object was removed.
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If you doubled that vertical piece you could have the walnut on both sides (after doubling the width of the hole of course) a square is easier to spin than a rectangle as well 
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Very cool! With the rounded end, does that mean you sit it in a bowl? I recently crocheted a couple of dishcloths after years of not. Hope to do so again soon.
Thank you for sharing!
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I started making my own t-shirt yarn to weave rugs with (also works great for tying garden plants!), and use toilet paper and paper towel tubes to wind them. Never would have thought of winding regular yarn on them!
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It spins ok on the rounded bottom, but you probably don’t want to rely on it. Just sitting it in a bowl might work really well. It probably won’t bounce around as much as a loose ball.
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I learned the other day at my spinning guild meeting that when you spin yarn, you want knitting yarn to be spun one way (drop spindle clockwise I think) and crochet yarn the other way. As you crochet you will slightly untwist yarn made for knitting.
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I taught a friend of mine to spin wool and silk on a treadle spinning wheel. She does exactly as you say for her yarns: crochet (S-twist, Z-ply) vs knit/weave (Z-twist, S-ply).
And thank you for the wonderful design! So practical.
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Nice practical share. Thanks!
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So cool thanks for the share.
Great thread also
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@Helene and @kelley1 - that is so interesting! I’d never heard about the difference in the way yarns were twisted. And it’s been a while since I’ve even bought any. Do they specify whether they should be used for crochet or knitting? I’ve watched one gal do some spinning once at a craft show. I’ve always thought it was fascinating.
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It’s been years since I’ve bought commercial personal-use yarns. I know there are cottons called “crochet cotton”, and it may be that their twist is opposite that of knitting yarns. Some yarns do market themselves for one or the other.
My guess is that modern commercial yarns (acrylic, polyester and nylon with a bit of wool or cotton thrown in) are designed for any mode; I haven’t really paid attention though. There are symbols on the wrapper that give you an idea as to the gauge with certain size needles. [Have your glasses handy.]
I was a ‘sometimes’ crochetist, so I didn’t know about the twist directions. I was taught to spin by a spinner who was also a weaver/knitter. Of course, I twist and ply in the same directions as her.
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They told me at my guild meeting that some yarns do specifiy if they are for knit or crochet.
Yarns will (sometimes) have little symbols that say what size it is and how to wash it and what size needles to use. Sometimes those needles are either pictured as knitting needles or crochet hooks.
I don’t buy yarn often and I am going off of memory…
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Thanks gals!
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What size should this be? When I bring the file into my Silhouette software, it is tiny. Thank your for the file. I plan on using for my twine.
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The file is set up to be used on the Glowforge - the design was created in a document that was 11x19 (or whatever the exact size is - it is past my bedtime!) and it should open in the Glowforge the correct size. The round piece is about 4 or 5 inches across. You could resize it however you like, the only thing to watch out for is the thickness of your wood and the width of the rectangular hole in the middle.
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Helene,
Thank you so much for the information. I usually open files in my Silhouette software first, before using in my Glowforge. I think it is just a habit that I have gotten into. I will open it directly into the GF. Again, thank you.
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Thanks so much for sharing!
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