madam unearthed a forgotten toy from her toy box; "mama do you know how to spin this?" (she knows an expert when she sees one). it's flat plastic top-kinda-thing that makes groovy holographic patterns when spun. this thing spins for ever so it didn't take long for a certain thought to form in my mind. i've heard of cd spindles obviously, but they never seemed like they'd balance well. this thing is smaller than a cd and slightly rim-weighted, and - lets face it - is designed to do just one thing, spin.

i had a trial run just blutacing a straw on the top and using it as a bottom-whorl. it worked a treat and spun really fine, though i couldn't get up a satisfying speed on it. will take a little more work to turn it into a spindle proper, plus a bit of sweet talking for madam to let me appropriate it. i'm wondering if i could find a plastic dowel substitute to keep the weight right down. would be nice to try a hook instead of a notch and see what the difference is.