#im gonna go oil it again real quick tho the colors are so pretty when its oiled

[milkweedman]

Whittled a spindle from a birch stick I found at a park earlier. First time getting to work with birch--it's really nice although I think this piece was a little old and had dried slightly too much for whittling, as it chipped a lot. But it spins in the palm well and I'm pretty happy with how it looks. Obviously the spalting is really nice although largely that's not something I have a hand in, other than trying to preserve it rather than cut it away. Every random stick I pick up to whittle has its own thing going on that I have to figure out how to work with if I can to make into a spindle. This one was hard, that's why I'm happy with it even though it's quite a strange and crooked spindle.

The reason I'm holding it in these angles is because it can't rest at these angles, it would roll or fall. This is often the case with my spindles because they are whittled, not lathed. Lathed spindles are uniform on all sides, whereas whittled spindles can be totally different shapes from each angle. So, the cross section of this one is an oval instead of a circle. It also twists at the midsection. I'm fairly certain I got the tip and point aligned, which is what's absolutely key. It will never spin balanced if they aren't aligned, the rest of it is of varying importance as far as I can tell xD. I've been spinning a little on it--it only tolerates very fine yarn (not something I have noticed with my other spindles) but spins incredibly fast and isn't particularly wobbly. I'll try to remember to update whether it becomes unstable with a significant cop on it--if so, that would make this more of a decorative piece. That's okay though, random sticks are free and I enjoy whittling, so occasionally making a spindle that I think is beautiful but not very functional isn't a problem.

The holes in it are from fire ants. Or at least, fire ants were living in them. I'm glad I didn't leave this in the car very long, they don't seem to have started leaving the stick before I disturbed them with my knife and then started knocking them out. I feel kind of bad for relocating them like that. I usually knock stuff out before I leave with it, I guess these ones were very deep, or I forgot.

Anyway, I hardly ever name my spindles but this one is the Crooked Steeple of The Fire Ants

Steeple for short.

Here is what it looked like initially, and much earlier in the day: