New stitching pony I made based loosely on those made by dream factory. The body is made from Walnut and the tension knob is capped with Yellowheart (no stain on that, the wood is literally highlighter yellow).
After creating a couple projects using it I've found it's mostly great however longer threads can loop over the tension knob. This doesn't happen often but definitely breaks your rhythm when it does. I think Phil pointed out this flaw with dream factory pony's in another post but can't recall for sure. I may create / attach a horseshoe shaped ramp beneath the knob which will (in theory) guide the thread loop over the knob - still contemplating that one. Despite that, I'm happy with how it turned out and how well it works.
Beautiful work! Yeah the Dream Factory clamp is a real pain to use. If you created a tapered tension knob, that would probably solve the issue. Think of a paper cupcake cup. That way the thread would slide right over it. Great idea recessing the knob though, that takes away the worst place to get caught!