Swift

My new toy to play with. For my birthday I was given a swift, sans the winder. I had to go an order that myself, but I can’t blame someone for not knowing this, when they are not yarny-folk.

The winder arrived Two weeks ago and I soon had both set up and ready to wind.

I have a number of skeins that sit in my stash, waiting patiently for me to ball them up. I never do. I just don’t have the patience to stretch the hank around two chairs and stand there making it into a ball. I invariably drop the thing and it rolls away. Aargh! Drives me nuts.

Some may think of this as an extravagance. But now, I just set up the swift and winder and I have three balls in the time it would take me to do one by hand.

The beauty of these gadgets is the finished product. A ball of yarn, neatly wound and with a flat base. So, more control over this than a normal ball, which can roll away as you knit or crochet.

I have some more yarn requiring attention. And I am sure, that after Wonderwool later this month, that there will be some more. Just what my stashbusting efforts need; more yarn! But you can’t miss the opportunity to be presented with a host of yarn you won’t ordinarily see in your LYS.

And so today, I got everything set up again and turned four hanks of yarn from Wonderwool 2018 into balls, ready to be crafted into some item. I seem to recall my thoughts were for a houndstooth woven scarf. But having done similar with wool, which was rather hairy and reduced the impact of the houndstooth, I am not so sure.

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I have a number of balled up yarn now, so I really need to get cracking! Plus, when it comes to prepping for the proper jumper, there’s 7 or 8 hanks to ball up for that. So glad I have these two little gadgets now.

Ciao.