The yarn bowl is turned from Beetle Kill Pine and finished with a spray lacquer finish.
Main Tools used in this video
Incra Miter Saw and the Jet Mini latheÂ
Making Segmented Yarn Bowls: A Journey in Woodturning
So I recently finished up a set of segmented yarn bowls, and I thought I’d walk you through my process. These turned out really nicely, and honestly, the technique wasn’t as complicated as it might look.
Like pretty much every project I tackle, I started with the basics: milling and squaring up my wood. There’s something satisfying about getting everything perfectly flat and square before you dive into the actual work. It sets you up for success later on.
Next up, I moved over to my Incra Miter Gauge to cut the wedges for the rings. I decided to go with 12-segmented rings for these bowls, which gives you a nice balance between visual interest and not having to cut a million tiny pieces. Once I had all my wedges cut, it was time for the glue-up. I used some adjustable pipe clamps to hold the rings together while the glue dried. You know how it is—you can never have too many clamps!
Here’s where it gets interesting. Using the tail stock of my lathe to apply pressure, I glued each ring together, stacking them one on top of the other. I judged the offset by eye, creating that spiral pattern you see in segmented bowls. It’s one of those things where you develop a feel for it after doing a few.
Then came the fun part—turning it round and shaping it into the bowl form I was going for. There’s nothing quite like watching those segments blend together as the piece spins.
Now, the curly q slot (that’s the channel where the yarn feeds through) required a bit of problem-solving. I made a jig from some scrap plywood and clamped it in place using wedges and the tail stock. Then I carefully routed out that signature spiral opening. To keep the bowl from spinning while I was routing—which would have been a disaster—I used the indexing stops on my lathe to lock everything in place.
Here’s a little tip I learned: I did all my sanding before cutting the curly q. It’s so much easier to sand when the piece is smoothly spinning on the lathe rather than trying to work around that cutout later. After routing the spiral, I just did some touch-up sanding around the curly q to clean everything up.
Finally, I parted it off the lathe, cleaned up the bottom, and took it into my finishing room to spray it with a gloss lacquer. That finish really makes those segmented rings pop!
And that’s it—another yarn bowl complete and ready to keep someone’s yarn from rolling all over the floor while they knit or crochet.
I’m the owner of Benham Design Concepts, a mixed media art studio where I design and build custom furniture and other works of art using wood, glass, stone, and various metals.
In this blog, I talk about the art I create, my journey, and the things I learn along the way.