yarn bowl

[byron constantine]

Has anyone made one of these? My neighbor wants me to make one for him to give his wife as
a christmas gift. I think about 8" diax4" deep and the base needs to be fairly stable about 3"foot.
Also most of the ones i have seen use a l shaped slot for the yarn hole. Any other ideas? Byron

[Marvin Hasenak]

Google images of yarn bowl. It also depends on how she knits or crochets, some times my wife crochets using several strands, it takes one big bowl to hold the yarn. Heavy on the bottom and make sure the crooked yarn slot is perfectly smooth.

[Ryan Mooney]

Here are a couple I made for the boss in elm (and yes they're from the same tree - ain't the variation in wood wonderful). The more calabash shaped one is favored, possibly for aesthetic reasons but it maybe seems to hold the yarn a lttle better to. I probably wouldn't try the spiral slot with a weaker wood but it doesn't get a lot of tension and seems ok here.

I might consider deeper (and possibly narrower) than your initial plan since I believe that a deeper bowl holds the yarn in place better. The pottery ones I've seen were mostly more like straight sided pots. I didn't leave the base nearly as heavy as you're proposing and it seems ok so far but yeah more stability wouldn't hurt either.

These seemed like a reasonable size (around 6.5-8" across and 5-6" tall) for most use as they'll hold a couple balls of most yarn. It somewhat depends on what kind of yarn she mostly uses though, if she uses a lot of bulky yarn she'll want a bigger bowl. If she does laceweight then a smaller bowl would be better. If she does a lot of color work using 5-6 balls of yarn at once .. well I'm not sure a yarn bowl would work super well for that, maybe a multi-holed yarn bowl

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[David Gilbert]

I've made a number of these and some photos can be seen on my daughter's website at twistcollective.com in the shop. If you make them in the calabash form then 4 or 5" tall works fine. A diameter of 7 or 8" works well too. I've made them as small as 6 and as large as 9". I turn these green to final thickness (1/4 - 5/16") and then let them dry and turn oval. You don't need a lot of weight in the bottom but you do need a small flat area so it doesn't roll. I cut the slot with a Japanese keyhole saw that works on the pull stroke. Carefully select where you cut the slot because the the wood around the slot can break. I drill the hole after cutting the slot since there are times the saw cuts in a less than predicatable direction.

Cheers,
David

[Maria Alvarado]

I frequently see ceramic versions which might also give you ideas. I've also seen a form where the bowl is inverted over a 'plate' with some form of slot for the yarn to exit. In that version there certainly would be little chance of the yarn rolling out. As David mentions, the calabash form or a semi-closed bowl shape would also help in that respect.
Good luck and post pics!

[Paul Williams]

The idea for this yarn bowl for use in or not in a car was in a magazine a few months ago. I made this one for my sister-in-law who reports that it works very well on long trips. The curved slot might not weaken the side as much as the more drastic curve shown up thread. Also do not put the slot in end grain. The two holes are for the needles which our stuck through the yarn ball and out the holes for storage.


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