February 4, 2010

Yarn Ball Heaven

Thanks to birthday cash received, I was able to feed my gadget addiction and add another lovely book to my knitting bookshelf. (Thanks, Mom and Dad!)

The Yarn Ball Winder from KnitPicks.com, is by far one of the most practical, handy gadgets for knitting. And at $19.99, it is a supreme bargain! Oh, and FYI ... it could not be easier to use.



The yellow yarn pictured is left over from the horsie baby blanket. Even though it was a pull skein, I find that they often will knot up the closer you get to the end and rolling the skeins into a ball eliminates that from happening while you're knitting.



I wound all of the yarn for my funky footsies class this morning in about 20 minutes. It would have taken sooooooo much longer by hand. I needed to split one of the 2-ounce balls of fun fur into two separate balls since BIL and I are sharing a skein. I wound the entire skein into a ball, then rewound the ball to half-size, weighing the loose end on my kitchen scale. Worked like a dream! (I'll be right there, honey; I'm in the kitchen weighing my balls!)



The book I ordered from KnitPicks.com is "One Ball Knits: Purses." There are some very, very cute little bags in this book. And I love that they're single skein projects. I'm going to be looking for some cool purse handles to use.

6 comments:

Kelli said...

We went to an outdoor fair in NH and talked with a lady demonstrating spinning. Of course, she used lamb's wool, but she was also using goat hair, etc. We joked about all the German Shepherd hair we had laying around the house and she told us to start saving it! How about a Yorkie sweater! : )

jayaycee said...

You know, I have never actually seen anyone spinning yarn up close and personal. I'd like to!

One of the reasons I got my first Yorkie (Buddy) 31 years ago, was because they DON"T SHED! Now if I could make yarn from dust bunnies, I'd have it made!!!

Kelli said...

Up here in farm country, they're referred to as "fuzz chickens". My chicken farm is doing very well.

jayaycee said...

I'll bet my bunnies could kick your chickens' dusty butts!

Tabitha Blue said...

How cool! That all looks like so much fun. I was learning how to knit, and I really just need to sit down and practice now. Your post makes me want to do that!!

~Tabitha

jayaycee said...

You really do need to just knit for hours and hours. It feels terribly awkward at first, but once you get a rhythm going, you'll be breezing along. I love that I make fabric with string and sticks!