New project – DIY Wool Hackle

So after finally finishing the shawl for my mother in law, I suddenly found myself without a project with a deadline. I’ve been working on the Thomas the tank engine hat for my son, but I’m missing a grey colour, so I had to put it on a side till I find time to pop into yarn store.

Well, since my mother in law is still around to help out with the kids, I saw my chance to finally have a free day and start working on a wool hackle.

First I had to put up my drill press, which I wanted to do already for few months now.

 Once that was done, I could start on the hackle. I found an old piece of hard wood in the shed, roughly 5cm wide, that was perfect for the project. I cut two 40cm long pieces and used one to drill the holes for the nails in. I also got 40cm long, thin piece of scrap wood and drew points where the holes will be on it. I joined one piece of the hard wood with the piece of scrap wood with small screws to prevent them from moving while I was making the holes

Then I carefully drilled holes big enough for the nails to snugly fit through. After that I used a drill bit same size as the head of the nail is, to make the bottom of the hole bigger, so the head would sink all the way in the wood. And then I sanded and painted the wood for the hackle.

Once the paint dried a bit, I have hammered 10cm long nails in and used the scrap wood that had exactly the same holes, to align the nails on top.

Sorry for the bad pictures, but by that time it was already dark outside, and the light in the shed is not really great…. But at least you can see how the scrap wood is keeping the nails nicely aligned.

Then I  dripped some construction glue around each nail and hammered them all the way in. Once the nails were all in their places, I used some more glue to attach the 2nd piece of the hard wood I cut earlier on and left it to dry overnight (or maybe longer).

I don`t have any picture of that yet, as it was too late, too dark and too cold for me to hang out in the shed.

Hopefully I will have some time in the next couple of days to finish off  my hackle.

I`ll keep you posted…. 🙂