Fringe Twister

Day 357: "Gadget," I said to myself when I first saw a fringe twister for sale. "I don't need another gadget." And then I sat down at the loom and wove another shawl, knit another scarf, made some cotton towels, and about halfway through the tedium of licking my fingers, picking up a pair of threads, spinning them 10-12 times, picking up a second pair while holding the first tightly, spinning those, and then allowing the two pairs to twist together, I would say, "Dang, I wish I had a fringe twister." Well, now I have one, and the process of making twisted fringe which would normally have taken half an hour took about five minutes. Sometimes gadgets move to the back of the closet in fairly short order, but sometimes they're good. The fringe twister is brilliant.

Mine has three clips. Some models only have two. Each clip is attached to a small metal crank, and each of those is anchored in a piece of wood with an offset handle. When you rotate the handle, the cranks go 'round on their axes, rotating the clips. Thus, each strand of yarn (or groups of threads) captured in a clip is twisted simultaneously with those caught in the other clips. The handle is rotated in the same direction as the twist of the yarn, and when the yarn is removed from the clips and knotted at the ends, the threads twist back on themselves to form a neat, even fringe. The operator only needs to count revolutions of the handle (20 in this case) to obtain a uniform fringe across the work. This model gives you the option of using two or three groups of threads (or singles). What a time-saver!