I Did A Bad Thing

I started out the New Year on the wrong foot.  See, I promised myself I would be good.  I promised myself that I would always do the right thing and use up my (already prolific) yarn stash before getting anything new.  And for the most part, I followed that rule (well....almost) and.....just got some new knitting tools instead!  Oops...

So for you viewing pleasure, and explanation of all these weird freaky tools that (I think) round out what I need to spin and knit (at least until I have an extra $400 to spend on a spinning wheel...ha!).

A spindle (I had this already from my spinning class): This is what I spin the yarn with.  Mine is cheap and light and wood.  I keep wrapping the yarn around the bottom of the stick until I have spun as much as I want or it is full.  But then what?  I have two options.

Yarn I'm spinning.  More on this later.

A toilet paper tube (not even joking):  If I am going to ply the yarn, I roll the two plys off onto separate toilet paper tubes.  When I go to ply them together, I take the two ends, hold them together and spin them into a two-ply yarn.  Once I have the yarn that I want, I go on to the next step which is a.....

A niddy noddy:  If I am ready to set the yarn (by soaking it in water to make sure the twist stays the way I want it to), I wind the yarn off onto a niddy noddy.  It wraps the yarn into yard-long loops that, when removed and twisted together, become a skein.  You store yarn in skein form (not in ball form) because it allows the yarn to stay loose and fluffy instead of stretched and compact as in ball form.  But to knit you need your yarn in ball form so that it doesn't tangle up.

niddy noddy is the best name for something EVER

A yarn swift:  To get your yarn into a ball, you stick it on the yarn swift.  It is a big umbrella thingie that clamps down on the table.  You put the yarn around it

and open it up until it is taught.  It spins around.

A ball winder:  You then set your ball winder up next to the yarn swift (or hold it in your hand if you want).  Hook the yarn to it and start cranking. 

This is the most satisfying thing.  You spin the handle and the ball of yarn grows.  It's like magic...

 You end up with a ball of yarn like this:

I want to find a video of someone REALLY having fun with this, but all I could come up with was this very silent lady.



I might have to film something for yo, 'cause this thing is just too much fun :-)