Saturday, February 11, 2006

To all the yarn I've know before...

Now I can make you into neat, center-pull balls with a 10th of the work!

John took the initiative by reading my blog and seeing how much I wanted a ball winder and went out and got me one! We were talking about it a few weeks ago and I had decided that it would be something I would purchase with my e-bay profits, since I felt I couldn't justify getting it outright. He called two of our local yarn shops to see what they had in stock. He was trying to decide between the ball winder and a swift and he made the right choice. He also walked from Broad and Market all the way to 19th & South and back to get it. This hike is just a stretch of the legs to me, but it's some pretty hefty walking for him, especially with the state his feet are in.

I made 10 center-pull balls in record time. I still like the way a hand-wound ball looks better, but considering the time/effort difference, a ball winder is the way to go. It took every ounce of restraint I had (and trust me, there's not much there to be going with) to no stay up all night and turn my stash into neat, center-pull balls.

My mom and sister happily drove me down to AC Moore last night and I was able to get 3 hanks of Fisherman's wool and another container of the Wilton moss green coloring since my jar is almost out. Tonight I'm planning of measuring out the merino that I bought two weeks ago for self-striping and turning the three hanks of woll I bought last night into 12 2oz skeins. I'm hoping to do some major dyeing on Sunday while the boy sleeps. I'm planning on doing four colors with the 2 oz skeins with 3 gradations in each (1/4 tsp, 1/2 tsp, 3/4 tsp) so I can get a definite idea of what concentrations of dye yeild what depth of color and start a color card.




Here are the longies that I'm working on for Michael. I'm hoping that I have enough yarn to finish them. If not, at least I got some more last night so I can hopefully dye it to match.