Strange Inhabitants of the Treadle Machine and a Quiz

When you buy an old sewing machine in a wooden cabinet you sometimes get some bonus items.  My old Singer came with some of the things on this page (in addition to a handful of tarnished, very thin pins, a homemade pin cushion, an ancient bottle of machine oil, and an old machine belt).  But first, on the left is a metal cat that stands balancing on his back legs and sturdy tail near the sewing machine on my computer desk, ready to accept in his tray calling cards from the many ladies who come calling during my At Homes.

On the right, at the top, is a sheep button.  Maya and I found it at the fabric store the other day and, although we had no need of a button, thought it was good reference material for sheep-pattern-making.  Below the sheep and to the right is a mysterious tool.  It came in one of the Singer drawers, and has no discernible purpose.  It has a varnished wooden handle with quite a bit of black embroidery thread wrapped around it.  It's sort of screwdriver-like, but the metal tip is deeply slotted and has a hole near the end.  There's no point on the metal tip.  At first I thought it might be a sewing awl, but it's too blunt tipped for that.  And how does the string relate to it?

At the bottom is an obviously homemade object, about 2 x 3 inches by maybe 3/4 of an inch thick.  It's made of a beat up piece of laminated wood and has 9 holes drilled in it plus one circular mark sort of like the beginning turns of a hand-drill might make.  I thought it could be a screwdriver bit holder, but the holes are all the same size.  I can't think of a single sewing job that this thing could support.  But I'm not a real sewing person, so it's possible that I just don't know enough to recognize this thing.  What do YOU think?