Our biggest marketing challenge is helping yarn lovers imagine just how big our XXL-Jumbo Yarn Bowls actually are  when just looking at tiny photos and reading dimensions. Here's a few tips to to help you make the right choice as you navigate through the five general sizes offered.

​The first dimension listed is the diameter of the bowl; measured (in inches) across the center from one side to the other out (outside edges; see photo). Depth of the bowl is the second measurement listed from the top rim to the base (where it sits on the table).

The diameter is what we usually use to determine the size/category of a #HeckathornYarnBowl. To keep things simple we use these standard bowl measurements knowing that the circumference is a much more impressive figure.

That's why we also include circumference for our bowls. If you want to convert these measurements to circumference (or even meters) this site has a quick and easy tool: OmniCalculator.com

We may upsize an XXL (diameter), for example, to the XXXL category if the yarn bowl is unusually deep. All dimensions are outside dimensions (od) and approximate as wood has a tendency to warp making the top diameter vary slightly depending on where/when it's measured across.

The depths of our XL - Jumbo Yarn Bowls vary considerably. For that reason, depths aren't listed below on this sizing chart; however, depths are always included on each individual listing:

• MEDIUM: 5 - 6" + diameter x 4- 5" deep. This size is rarely turned; as smaller bowls start with the same size wood speciman and same amount of time/labor to produce. Medium bowls are perfect for any project accommodating a single 5 oz+ skein of worsted yarn (sometimes more). Medium bowls are perfect for sock, mitten and hat projects where smaller quanties of yarn are needed. Nice for dk, fingering and fine cotton spools.

• LARGE: 6 - 7" diameter x 5+" deep. Our classic "workhorse" yarn bowl; perfect for any project accommodating a single 5-7oz skein of worsted yarn, rolled into a ball ready to glide like silk making all yarn projects easier. Nice for "frogging" as well.

​• XL: 7+ - 9+/-" diameter (depth varies considerably depending on style of the bowl).

​• XXL: 10 - 12" diameter (depth varies considerably depending on style of the bowl).

• XXXL: 12 - 13+" diameter (depth varies considerably depending on style of the bowl).

JUMBO CUP/HUB SETS: 14" (plus!?) It's rare that Bob gets to turn a 14" Yarn Bowl. He would if more jumbo wood stock was available here, however, his XXXL yarn bowls are very close in size to Jumbo, and we usually have a few in both shops.

A great trick is to find a glass or ceramic bowl of similar diameter/depth to be sure it will suit your needs. It's important that you know what you're getting before the bowl arrives at your door! ​

​THE SIZE & SHAPE
Our best-selling Large Yarn Bowls are taller and narrower than competing yarn bowls. The tall sides are designed to loosely hug a ball of yarn to prevent it from popping out when the yarn is tugged quickly. Measuring 6"-7” (diameter) x 5-6” deep; a variety of shapes is determined by the characteristics of each wood specimen as the yarn bowls are turned on the lathe. This results in a truly unique, one-of-a-kind yarn bowl that can’t be duplicated!

ALL our LARGE yarn bowls are designed to fit the following criteria:

THEY MAKE FROGGING A BREEZE!
Need to frog several rows? Frog that yarn into your Large Yarn Bowl and it will pile or stack in a contained manner so you can set your project aside without the risk of it becoming a tangled mess. Redoing those rows will be a breeze –whenever you get to it.

MONTHS IN THE MAKING
Every yarn bowl is made to strict gallery grade standards; an incredible value considering the hours spent to elevate each piece to “collectible” status! Each Large Yarn Bowl takes 2-3 months for the wood to dry after turning and shaping the bowl on the lathe. Then, the real work starts with lathe shaping, groove cutting, and a minimum of fifteen cycles of hand sanding, buffing and finishing –an additional 2 weeks under optimum weather conditions. Sometimes finishing takes longer when the Florida heat and humidity slows down finishing. A final coat of museum wax is applied and buffed to resist fingerprints and enhance the brilliant shine.

THE HISTORY…
We opened shop on Etsy in 2014 with large pine bowls only; made from (readily available) segmented pine. Because the pine was kiln dried, it eliminated the lengthy (2-3 month) drying process so Bob could create and finish each bowl in 2-3 weeks. Each one represented at least 10 hours of labor and was priced from $60-$90. Needless to say, they flew out the door! These were a tremendous value for our early yarners, but after two years of 40+ hr. work weeks, my retired husband "felt like a machine" and longed to spend more time expanding on his craft with finer works. 
 
With over 600 sales and a growing five-star reputation, he was getting requests for bigger (and bigger!?) yarn bowls in pricy, hard to find hardwoods (like cherry and pecan). Challenged, but spurred on by creativity, we expanded our selection to include his highly popular XL - Jumbo sizes and I designed the “tool cup/hub sets” I now can’t live without and love to share.
 
At the same time in 2016, “large” wood yarn bowls flooded the market on Etsy. These mass-produced offerings; many from endangered wood in India and China claim to be "handcrafted” while they are actually manufactured with computerized precision, quickly hand sanded; and brought to market with a single coat of finish guaranteeing snags galore.
 
Local yarn shops, big box craft stores, and Etsy yarn and craft shops started offering these mass-produced “hand-crafted” versions at rock bottom prices. Yes, they're cheap, but remember the old adage; you get what you pay for.

Bob's new #JumboYarnBowl line grew rapidly as he created XL, XXL, XXXL yarn bowls suited to different yarning styles and works in progress. Testing these bigger bowls, I found they worked best with just two balls of yarn fed through the yarn groove even though there was tons of extra space in the vessel... More than two balls of yarn would inevitably tangle in the bowl before the groove; something I vowed to work out... As fellow yarn enthusiasts snapped up Bob's new hardwood artisan yarn bowls, we were encouraged by lots of reviews from happy yarners who enjoyed "room for everything!"

When I asked Bob to make this small cherry cup to complete my new Jumbo Yarn Bowl Set, he groaned. Turning a small cup is easy he explained, but fitting his big man hands inside for twelve+ coats of hand sanding and silky finishing is not only difficult but the repetition generates a lot of hand cramps. For this reason, I understood why it took a few months of nagging before I was rewarded with two prototype tool cup/hubs (an extra one for our PA friend/tester Donnamarie).​

Those first tool cup/hubs were larger then we wanted, so I begged for "just one more" (and smaller, please, honey). After a bit of grumbling, Bob completed the perfectly sized hub for our first Jumbo Bowl Set. I was thrilled, then the set sold right away and I couldn't get Bob to make any more tool cup/hubs come hell or high water!

Fresh hardwoods are not always available here, and while Florida live oak is plentiful, premium hardwoods like cherry, pecan, cedar and camphor; to name a few are a rare find. Recently, Bob found a reliable source for prime cherry hardwood; a particular favorite for its minimal warping, stunning tones and a very hard durable finish that resists dents and dings.

Turning fresh hardwood into yarn bowls is a lengthy process spanning several months. Each bowl starts after a fresh log is cut into blanks. Each log is stripped of bark and trimmed with a chainsaw. Next the blank is mounted on the lathe for a rough turning, shaping and hollowing.

​After roughing out, each bowl is set aside for a drying period of one to four months time depending on weather conditions (humidity, barometric pressure and temperature). 

The drying period is the most critical stage for fresh turned wood. A stretch of dry, cool weather for example can cause the bowls to warp and crack. Some hardwoods (like cherry) are less prone to warping and cracking, other hardwoods gently warp, while many crack considerably, or warp and crack. Nature determines the condition of the bowl when it’s dry enough; as interesting wood patterns and challenges emerge. The choicest bowls are finished first. 

Most wood turners reject cracked and warped bowls; discarding them to focus on more pristine specimens. Bob sets these nature challenged bowls aside until his supply of hardwood gets low, and he has the necessary hours to rescue these gifts from nature. This is when the real magic begins –with restoration techniques that result in his most artful offerings. 

The larger cracks are filled with our proprietary sparkle inlay; in custom colors mixed to complement the bowl. Fine cracks are filled to match the wood tones. Bob’s process follows the ancient Japanese philosophy “Wabi-Sabi” using ancient "Kintsugi" techniques, embracing the flawed or imperfect; highlighting the cracks and repairs to honor the life of an object rather than allowing its service to end at the time of its damage or breakage. 

Drying Jumbo yarn bowls is Bob’s biggest challenge to date. These HUGE hardwoods usually crack considerably -even before they are removed from the lathe!

This colossal oak bowl developed multiple cracks on its east/west sides and valued black line spalting on the north/south sides. Fine cracks were painstakingly filled to match the darker grains, Larger cracks were filled with custom matched inlay –a tricky process as wood and fill colors will change when the piece is finally inished.

This particular set is too big to sell/ship and the yarn fanatic loves it… 💭🧶👍🏻❤️

In 2014, Bob designed our first  "Shooting Star Groove"  and over the years has created many Large - Jumbo's with these functional star grooves (when motivated). Every time Bob’s workflow gets faster than mine and I can't catch up, I "motivate" him to to slow down and craft some long-awaited star groove bowls.

Green wood directly from the log of a felled tree contains more than 50% water. This “free water” is eliminated during the turning process, often giving the operator a cool shower. Bound water is what remains in the cells after the wood is turned. The outside surface dries first and becomes hard while the inner cells are still releasing water. This is what causes movement or cracking in the wood and is predominately tangential or diagonal to the direction of the grain thus causing the wood to twist. You can even find this in kiln dried building lumber at big box stores.

​One blank I had to discard because it was too soft to safely turn. The other I mounted up and took a chance that it wouldn’t disintegrate. What emerged was a fascinating bowl with a blend of decay interspersed with sound wood. In some spots it was very spongy with colorful decay. Other spots completely rotted through; indicating hours of work to come.

I stabilized the piece with wood hardener, which petrified the decay, making it stable enough to work through the sanding and finishing stages. The blue inlay is where the wood was rotted through; the golden tones are various stages of decay while the rust areas are sound wood, unaffected by decay bacteria.

After twenty sanding and finishing cycles, I was rewarded with a finish like glass, interesting spalting and grains enhanced by pools and veins of our proprietary inlay. This bowl was so much fun to work with, I'm saving it to my personal collection as inspiration for future wood Wabi-Sabi.
​

In some trees, such as oak or maple, spalting is rarely black-line often resulting in vague, amorphous, blotchy black or dark-gray areas. On rare occasions, spalting may cause colorful changes other than black. ​​

When nature gifts Bob with an interesting piece of wood that nature has spalted, it makes a rare and particulary beautiful yarn bowl. He usually sets these specimens aside for up to a year to encourage more spalting. Then, when his wood supply is depleted and with no fresh wood on the horizon, Bob will turn 2-4 highly spalted  bowls at one time. Once these uncommon yarn bowls are finished, the spalting process stops, embedding artful designs into the wood.

​In the beginning, creating functional yarn grooves that are pleasing to the eye was a challenge. In the final step prior to finishing every yarn bowl, Bob hand draws the groove on the bowl as a guide to hand cutting.

Drawing this perfectly proportioned, graceful yarn groove was a trial at the outset. Unhappy with first results Bob would seek my advice; usually getting a response from me like “not graceful enough…” or “too big and clunky” or “can’t you get the center to curl in on itself…?” Nothing seemed right until he realized, forming a perfectly pleasing groove relates to nature – the next step after visualizing the shape of each vessel as it emerges from a log of fresh hardwood.

​Bob’s problem was solved when he started thinking about the (Leonardo) Fibonacci series and the Golden Ratio; something that has intrigued artists, scientists, designers and of course mathematicians for centuries. The Fibonacci spiral repeats its perfect “golden spiral” in a mathematical pattern found in a nautilus shell, the eye of a hurricane or the perfect spiral of petals in a flower for example. Bob realized that the blueprint is there; the artist must learn to see it.

​After five plus years of practice, Bob’s pencil flows easily when marking his yarn grooves, the centerpiece of most of his yarn bowls. And, while his spirals are more freeform versions of this precise geometric formula found in nature, his Fibonacci yarn grooves are not only pretty; they all capture the yarn nicely in its silky, hand finished golden spiral!

I occasionally do a Google search to see the mass-produced offerings flooding the market and always noticing how patience and an eye for nature makes his yarn bowls stand out in the crowd. Check it out and see if you agree.

Sources/Details: 
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-Fibonacci-Spiral
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_spiral
https://io9.gizmodo.com/15-uncanny-examples-of-the-golden-ratio-in-nature-5985588

We only ship Bob's heirloom yarn bowls to locations in the US.
However, If you're visiting someone soon in the US, or know someone traveling from the US to visit you in your country, you can easily purchase a Heckathorn Yarn Bowl in our Etsy shop or our shop here. We'll ship it to the US address for transfer to you by a third party (see instructions below).*

Here are just three reasons why we can't ship outside the US:

1. Due to the value and size of our yarn bowls, international shipping is cost prohibitive as compared to smaller items purchased and shipped from/to the USA at more affordable rates. 

2. Inflated shipping costs mean we are unable to offer free shipping internationally. In the event a yarn bowl is lost/damaged in transit, it incurs a large financial loss to our business for circumstances beyond our control:
Our policy is to credit the lost/damaged item as soon as evidence of mishap is provided; immediately shipping a new similar replacement at no charge to our customer. We then pay (a third) shipping fee for return of the damaged piece back to us in order to restore the bowl; adding it to our own collection.

3. Past attempts to bill international buyers directly (because our website does not calculate international shipping charges with accuracy) has brought losses on US $ conversion plus a tremendous amount of time spent researching the lowest cost options for shipping to our customers outside the US to save them money if possible!

Bob has always wanted to carve elegant embellishments on yarn bowls. That’s why when he got a pneumatic power (dental) drill in January, I wondered where he was going to find the time to develop this new skill along with his 40 hr. week turning habit...

I finally got in a few practice sessions carving the words knit, crochet, yarn, etc., on wood samples and was ready to start something simple. Bob was a bit concerned when I asked for three segmented pine yarn bowls to carve words big on bowl in order to practice accurate curves, straight lines and removal. After carving, I filled the grooves with our sparkle inlay making three very blingy yarn bowls. He thinks they’re a bit tacky, I think they’re fun and festive –what do you think?

Now I’m hooked. Yesterday, Bob roughed out a XXL Cherry Yarn Bowl that’s begging for a nice carved relief border around the rim. I’ll certainly need get to work on carving technique in the next few weeks while the bowl cures.

Power carving is fun and relaxing when I have this 500,000 RPM tool in my hand. However, I was recently paralyzed with fear when my hygienist used a similar drill to clean my teeth on my last dental visit. I was suddenly struck by the trust I was putting in my dentist, with this high powered tool

Caring for your Heckathorn Yarn Bowl is as easy as an occasional buffing with whatever furniture wax you use at home. However, many of our yarn bowl enthusiasts ask what we use.

Before we ship each yarn bowl, Bob applies a fine coat of Renaissance™ Micro-Crystalline Wax Polish and gives the piece a vigorous hand buff with a soft cloth. This wax adds brilliance and resists fingerprints and serves well for a multitude of other household polishing purposes.

Renaissance™ Wax is a mix of "refined waxes blended to a formula used by the British Museum and restoration specialists internationally to revive and protect valuable furniture, leather, paintings metals, marble, ivory, etc..." Although it's a bit pricey (currently $15.95 on Amazon.com) it's well worth it. The small 200 ml can should last a lifetime unless you decide to restore your leather couch or polish your marble countertops with it!

The origins of Renaissance Wax are interesting. Find out what makes this wax so different at http://picreator.co.uk/renaissance-wax/

While his lengthy finishing process hardens the wood (and sadly masks its nice scent); Bob notes that cedar yarn bowls are more prone to small dents and dings over time, which give personality to your heirloom bowl for future generations.​

Harder woods (like cherry, oak and pecan), are more resistant to dents and marks with continued use; although if you love the look of our cedar yarn bowls like we do, place it on a round cutout of non-skid fabric or crocheted mandala and give it a little extra TLC! Your magnificent and functional cedar bowl will turn your #wip into a conversation piece wherever it rests.

​In August I started looking for a round crochet tablecloth pattern. Google searches produced lots of vintage (white and ecru) lace tablecloth patterns. Some were beautifully intricate, most comprised of circle motifs. And, while I love crocheting hundreds of little circles to relax, joining circles into a giant circle was daunting to me... not the long relaxing #MindlessCrochet project I was looking for.

Round pointed afghan projects gaining popularity on Instagram inspired me to bust out my stash of ultra fine cotton and a small hook. I kept increasing a "12 Pointed Star Crochet Throw" pattern (lots of free ones on www.ravelry.com) to a 74" diameter tablecloth. These patterns adapt well to finer crochet cottons with a smaller hook. 

I can't figure out why there aren't many newer style round tablecloth patterns to be found. If you have one please share. Tag me if you make one!

Paula
 
*I purchased most of this cotton from www.loveknitting.com -they stock almost 60 gorgeous colors, have fast shipping, pack in those sweet organdy bags, and offer sales frequently.

Today, as I brought him his daily hydrating tea at 11 o'clock, I thought about the work he does every day in a shop with no climate control. Although Bob has always enjoyed working in the heat (?) I constantly marvel about what he accomplishes in the 95-105 degree humid heat of Central FL early June into October. Now that his northern body has acclimated to the climate here, he says he prefers it to the (temperate 60 - 70 degree) "winter" weather I enjoy late Dec. - March. After suffering from my summer version of cabin fever I say "bring it on!"

In the spirit of sharing, I thought I'd take a moment to say how much admiration I have for my hard working husband/lathe artist. He does a lot of amazing work under some pretty harsh conditions. So here's to you Bob, I'm your biggest fan; knowing that along with the heart and soul you put into all these yarn bowls there's a heck of a lot of sweat, too!

​On rare occasions Bob finds some fresh “green” hardwood (Cherry, Pecan and Maple to name a few) from a fallen tree or local tree trimmer. And, although turning green wood bowls on a lathe is easier because it’s in a soft state, the necessary drying process that ensues is risky!
 
After a fresh wood yarn bowl is turned, it is set aside to dry. Depending on the current weather conditions (like relative humidity, barometric pressure and temperature to name a few) the drying process takes one to three months. As the hardwood dries, it has a tendency to warp and crack. Warping usually adds nice character to the yarn bowls; however, Bob feels that cracking; which is easily repaired in the finishing process, is an undesirable feature in some of his collectible art bowls. As his partner, I try to respect those high standards while at the same time viewing the cracks that ensue as the final word from nature!
 
Too often, I’ve watched Bob throw a beautiful yarn bowl into the recycling bin and felt that his lack of control over a few small cracks deprived a fellow yarn crafter of a unique and naturally beautiful piece. After some whining on my part, Finally, Bob acquiesced and started finishing these natural wonders when the occasion arises. Now, I’m able to offer a distinctive piece at deeply discounted price.
 
There’s a lot of value in our “Perfectly Imperfect” Yarn Bowls. Each one takes ten to twenty hours (at the least) to make –the same amount of time it takes to create a first quality bowl. For those who may not be able to invest in our first quality yarn bowls, I consider these pieces to be a special offering from Heckathorn Turned Wood as they are all authentic gifts of nature!

Some #HeckathornYarnBowls feature our proprietary "Inlay" or "Sparkle Inlay" enhancing a knot or set into the rim of the bowl for added appeal.

In 2014, with no real colorful options for inlays, we developed a special process of mixing custom colors and textures to match or compliment the style/color tones of each individual its intended for.

When so inspired, Bob will add a channel to the rim of a bowl, a few orbits or a star to the sides for those that like a little bling. Sometimes he uses this special inlay to restore/repair natures damage to a piece which can occur when it dries; using age old "Kintsugi" techniques.