Payin' Attention to Details

When my husband gave me a Turkish spindle for Christmas last year I began to automatically produce a beautiful center-pull ball as I spun and wound on. I learned that when I am ready to remove my cop and consider plying it, an intermediate step to pull both the inside and the outside strands from the ball and wind them into a new ball helps make the plying go more smoothly. But I kept having to ask my husband to hold the ball for me to keep it from bouncing around, especially at the end when it became lighter. A similar problem arose when I plied. One day I got out my hat with earflaps and ties, knotted the ties, hung it over my wrist, plopped a ball of unplied yarn into it, and discovered I had a new kind of distaff.
Maybe I could make something prettier and more to the point? I did, and I found myself paying a lot of attention to details, in particular at transitions, as I crocheted. When I started the sides of my yarn distaff, I worked the first round from the inside. This made it bend up from the flat bottom more easily. When I changed the color and started to work in a row of bobbles, I also worked from the inside, allowing the bobbles to pop out on the outside. I made my bobbles with only two double crochets each so they would be more subtle. I expected to make only two rows between my bobble rows for a balanced look but found I needed three and, voila, I could work the second row of bobbles on the inside also! I finished the body of my distaff with a variation of the crab stitch. A silky lining, a balanced, corded handle and a loop and button (to guide sticky strands) and I was ready to make another to post on Etsy.