Pop-A-bobbin shuttle review
The most popular tatted related item to be invented in our house is the Pop-A-bobbin shuttle and 'Im in the garage' has been very surprised by its success. Sitting comfortable on the chair below, and having a good old natter, are my very own shuttles, not many considering the different woods we have in the garage. The majority of these were made for me last year and it is time to request some more!
Since the Pop-A-bobbin shuttles made their first appearance here they have been sort after by many people, although not everyone. Some criticisms are well founded, they are of course thicker and larger than an Aero shuttle, but they have to be because if the wood was too thin it would split especially with the continual use of popping the bobbin in and out each time.
The hook is hand made only because it really was impossible to get a manufacturer to supply hooks to us, so to keep costs down and without mutilating crochet hooks it was decided to keep to homemade ones. However, the hooks are tightly fitted into a hole without gluing, they can be pulled out, but this is not recommended as they could break, so if people want to put their own hooks in it is best to buy a hookless one for this purpose.
Sometimes other bobbins are placed in the shuttle, instead of the original one supplied with it, they can then appear loose, or too tight, this is because we have found that bobbins do vary. The plastic Aeros can take the difference because they are flexible, the wooden shuttles cannot. To compensate for the looseness one purchaser puts hole reinforcement rings on them which usually corrects the tension.
The next shuttles will not make an appearance in Janes Etsy shop until August/September mainly because 'Im in the garage' is building a toy for himself and it is holiday time soon. Sadly for the tatting world Pop-A-shuttles are not a priority for the garage man, and there is no way to motivate him unless his toy is taken away and he is locked in the garage all weekend!
Different woods are continually being sort after and our latest supply came from a very strange source, here it is - mahogany, originally purchased to make coffins out of and yes we went to a funeral director to buy it.
Some of the wood is hopefully going to be made into a baptismal font for one of the churches, but the rest will not be wasted and you can probably guess what it will be used for!
The hook is hand made only because it really was impossible to get a manufacturer to supply hooks to us, so to keep costs down and without mutilating crochet hooks it was decided to keep to homemade ones. However, the hooks are tightly fitted into a hole without gluing, they can be pulled out, but this is not recommended as they could break, so if people want to put their own hooks in it is best to buy a hookless one for this purpose.
Sometimes other bobbins are placed in the shuttle, instead of the original one supplied with it, they can then appear loose, or too tight, this is because we have found that bobbins do vary. The plastic Aeros can take the difference because they are flexible, the wooden shuttles cannot. To compensate for the looseness one purchaser puts hole reinforcement rings on them which usually corrects the tension.
The next shuttles will not make an appearance in Janes Etsy shop until August/September mainly because 'Im in the garage' is building a toy for himself and it is holiday time soon. Sadly for the tatting world Pop-A-shuttles are not a priority for the garage man, and there is no way to motivate him unless his toy is taken away and he is locked in the garage all weekend!
Different woods are continually being sort after and our latest supply came from a very strange source, here it is - mahogany, originally purchased to make coffins out of and yes we went to a funeral director to buy it.
Some of the wood is hopefully going to be made into a baptismal font for one of the churches, but the rest will not be wasted and you can probably guess what it will be used for!
Lovely report on the shuttles. I love having a batch to sell and can't wait for the next 'lot' myself!!!
ReplyDeleteI would have liked to have been able to buy another shuttle when the last lot were available, but of course, I was too slow!
ReplyDeleteGreat review Sally. I love tatting with my Pop-A-Bobbin. It feels really nice in my hands when tatting.
ReplyDeleteI love using my Pop-A-Bobbin shuttles. My only criticism is that I would like to mark them in some way as to the type of wood they are made from. Have you tried pyrographing any?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments, Jane, Maureen and Carol.
ReplyDeleteIn answer to the question from Hillside Threads I have used pyrography but only on the post shuttles and that was to put a design on or the name of a person. The problem with the pop-a-bobbin shuttle is there isn't enough room, unless it was done along the inside, which is an idea, wonder what people would think about that?!
I love all four of mine. One needed a hook replacement, but the other three are great so far! The cocobolo rosewood one tats like a dream (had three people ask about it in the park this morning), and I actually drop these less often than the aeros. They also go through larks head joins more smoothly because they are more rotationally symmetric than an aero shuttle. Love them! Can't wait until your garage expert decides to make another batch!
ReplyDeleteHave you thought about making a double bobbin version? I'd probably like a longer one (like the Pelc) rather than a fatter one (like Silent Tatter and Gr8). There has been lots of chatter recently on the intatters site about double bobbin shuttles.
ReplyDeleteI have a Pop-A-Bobbin shuttle and love it but would like to obtain additional bobbins for it (so I could work with different colors of thread by just popping different bobbins in and out). Do you sell the bobbins? If not, could you provide information on the brand, class, size, or style of bobbin so I could obtain them somewhere? My bobbin is purple in color. Thank you so much--and please keep "I'm in the garage" supplied with tea and cookies when he's at work on the Pop-A-Bobbins! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Barbara, So pleased you love your shuttle. At the moment we do not sell the bobbins separately, the main reason for this is that we have great difficulty sourcing them in such a large quantity. Only yesterday I asked my original supplier for some more but have not heard back, so we are reluctant to let the few we have left go! Unfortuantely the manufacters of the bobbins will not sell direct to us. They are Aero bobbins which are usually black, and can be obtained from places like Handy Hands, however please come back to me if you cannot find any, hopefully eventually we will get some more!
ReplyDelete