Spools versus bobbins

Dear Weavers

This blog post is a little bit different than the previous ones. I won't discuss anything about yarn or colour or even weaving. This blog is about the thing my yarns are wound onto. Or what appears once the yarn is gone.

Do you know the difference between a bobbin and a spool?

You might ask yourself why is this important and what does this have to do with my weaving? Well, this is something which was on my mind for a long, long time. It is not just about the fact that a bobbin is very different from a spool, I would also like to explain to you the reason why my yarns are wound onto these things. So next time you order some yarns I hope you will remember and maybe look at the spool a little bit different than before.

A bobbin is a straight tube

A spool has two disk on either side of the tube

Bobbin

Spool

You might have asked yourself why most of the yarns from BB Yarns are on spools with exactly 100g on it. The reason for this is that these yarns get delivered in huge cones of nearly half a kilogram. I can't expect you to buy this amount of yarn in one colour. So therefore I wind each colour off into exact 100g amounts. It is for your convenience. This way you don't have to purchase a huge amount in just one colour. You have the best opportunity to purchase a couple of colours together for a project in mind.

The discs of the spools I use to wind the yarn onto are especially made for BB Yarns out of recycled plastic. It is from plastic that has already been used and melted up again to form the spools. The tube in between is a normal electrical conduit cut into size.The whole spool is assembled and glued together in my garage. Once you finished the yarn from the spool you have three options:

Wind your own yarn on it and re-use the spool yourself
Send the empty spool back to BB Yarns for re-use
Recycle the spools in your household recycle bin

To encourage the recycle process I would like to offer for every 10 spools to be returned back to BB Yarns a free 100g spool of pearl cotton 10/2 or bambu7 colour of your choice. The spools of course would have to be in good condition for re-use. So if you have 10 empty spools at home, think before you throw them into the recycling bin. Send the 10 spools to BB Yarn Supplies address with your choice of colour in pearl cotton or bambu7. You will find the address on our website www.bbyarn.com

While winding the yarns I sometimes feel a knot slip through my fingers. These knots are unfortunately unavoidable and come from where the yarn was produced. Some type of yarns have more knots than others. Bambu7 is one of the yarns which can have a knot or two in it. But I would like to assure you, when I wind these yarns off and feel a knot, I always add a minimum of 2g of yarn more onto the spool. This is courtesy of BB Yarns to make sure you can work around these knots. This way you will be able to cut the knot out and won't loose any yarn from the 100g you have ordered and paid for. My promise to you, dear customer, is for every knot I feel I automatically add 2g of yarn more to the spool.

To use this opportunity I would also like to inform you that most of BB's yarns are also available in small 8-10g spools. These little spools can be very handy when you like to try out a different colour or use it as a supplementary colour to your weaving. But these spools are also very handy for stitchers or bookmakers. BB Yarns also offers these small spools in colourful boxes with 18 spools in it.

This is it from me this month. I hope this was informative, not too boring and you enjoyed the read. Let me know if I missed something. If you would like to add any comment on this topic, please do so.

Stay safe everyone and happy weaving

Ursula

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