Mystery Item 2: Looks like miniature umbrella, but nothing moves

A second mystery for today - we've had this around for a few weeks, but no one has been able to identify it. It looks like a small umbrella, with a wooden handle, and cloth covering most of the piece. It measures 10-1/8 inches in length with maximum diameter about 1 inch. Weight is 1.4 ounces. Any ideas? Thank you! ... Dave

 

I wonder if it's a type of lace bobbin?

Oh - I just noticed the length - never mind.

 

Remember a while back, we had a spinning wheel part?
Does it look like any of these components to you?

 

Sorry; please disregard.

 

Antique Nostepinne for winding wool into a center pull ball. I'm just guessing, most I've ever seen are all wood. Maybe for oily fiber like raw wool.

Like I said - I've mostly seen wood ones

 

If umbrella, it should be able to be opened up.

 

Nothing moves on it and the fabric layer is sealed in place. It just looks similar to a closed umbrella.

 

Have tried unscrewing the wooden handle?

 

I can slide the metal trim ring down a bit, but everything is glued in place underneath. I'll try to get a picture showing that.

 

Something about this keeps ringing a bell to me. Something about fitting in a tube to control air flow. That is all I have.

 

I could see something like that. The shape sure doesn't seem random. Someone here suggested it was some cleaning tool possibly, designed to go into a tube of some sort. I am going to snap a picture under the trim ring now, in case that helps. I have a feeling there was another trim ring at the fabric end that may be missing.

 

Here is the picture with the trim ring shifted down slightly, also a shot of the end where it looks like there may have been another trim ring:

 

I just showed it to a woman who was in the store, and she thought it was a yarn spindle. That fits with what GG and R56 were thinking above.

 

The nostepinne hypothesis?
I thought maybe we rejected that due to the presence of material.

 

I'm keeping an open mind at this point. I did do some searching for "fabric covered yarn spindle", but didn't find a good comparable (yet). I'll do some more checking later today.

 

That inspired me to search for fabric-covered or upholstered nostepinnes... no luck.

But I was having a chuckle about people who apparently collect these things fiendishly... collect, document, covet, analyze... really? Nostepinnes?

Then I remembered I collect wine corks with birds on them.