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Nice Build Al,
Im with you, Ive been wrapping my rods freehand for nearly 50 years. I can set on the porch on a nice day or afternoon in my favorite chair and listen to the world around me or set in my favorite chair by the fire on a wintery day. Guess thats one of the differences in making your living making rods and only doing a dozen or so a year as I do. I find rod making like fly tying a relaxing hobby these days and so Im in no push to finish one on any specific date and I try my best not to commit to more than a dozen builds a year. The simple act of holding the spool in your wrapping hand and turning the rod in your other hand isnt really that hard once you have done a few. Often with two or more piece rods I just lay the rod section across my knee for support. On longer one piece rods I just let it lay out from my knee to the floor and take care to not roll it too far before repositioning it.
I bought one of those motorized rod wrapping and drying racks with all the fancy bobbin stands and adjustable speed etc, but found It just wasn't as much fun. Plus the only time I used it was on Graphite rod builds were Epoxy finishes were used and the need to rotate the rod while the Epoxy set and dried was the most important issue. With dipped varnish finishes a drying cabinate solves that problem for me and likewise for finger applied finishes that same drying cabinate is preferred.
Looks like your thread choice came out real nice on the Lami blank. About the only thing I can suggest on your build if you haven't already done it, is to secure your butt hood with a threw pin.
Keep it up, thats a great looking and fun first build.
Richard