Just Like Dad Use To Do

There is nothing like that feeling you get when the yarn you are waiting for arrives! Since I ordered mine on-line, I was a little nervous . . . what if it didn't feel right? What if the color wasn't the shade I was expecting? 

When I opened up my package . . . it was perfect . . . phew!! I quickly rolled one of the hanks into a ball . . . grabbed my needles . . . and sat down to make a gauge swatch. 

The one ball that I rolled up didn't last 
long . . . and then I had to look at . . . 
yes . . . 18 more hanks to roll up. Ugh. 

In the past whenever I had hanks that needed to be wound I would send them to my dad. He would send them back all nicely wound and ready to be used. Since my dad passed away, this was no longer an option.

So I called my mother and asked to borrow her swifter and winder. Of course she had also always given her hanks to my dad to wind . . . so it was handed off to me with a 'here you go'. I figured I was reasonably intelligent and I could figure out how to use this in no time.







.

Since it was a nice day, I set it up on my deck and started to wind. First I realized it couldn't be done at NASCAR speed . . . and then I realized it easily tangled at the end. As I debated how useful this contraption really was . . . and considered that it was perhaps quicker to wind it by hand . . . . and perhaps uttered a few words i won't repeat here . . . my daughter calls out from the kitchen window . . . 

"You do know you have the yarn on 
wrong . . . right?"

"I do?"






She nicely came out and changed it. 

"How did you know it went like that?" I asked.

Her response made me laugh . . . "When we were little Papa use to let us play with it all the time. If he had yarn he let us wind it up."

My sneaky father . . . all the time I thought he was winding my yarn it was my 6 year old daughter doing it while he babysat for me!!






After I started doing it the right way . . . I realized that you could go at NASCAR speed . . . .it was definitely easier than doing it by hand . . .  and the 'cakes' it made were firmer too.

Then I also remembered my dad would have the yarn label on the inside of the cake. That way, later on  I could always identify any left over yarn in my stash.

So I got the hang of wrapping the label around the winder core before I started to wind.

Here's what you'll end up with. It's not only quicker than winding by hand . . . it also sits flat . . . so when you are knitting you won't have a ball of yarn rolling all over the place for the cat to chase.












You can also work it from the outside by just untaping it . . . or from the inside since you can just pull it out of the middle! 

If you don't have a swifter and a winder, think about investing in one. It's a lot easier . . . and quicker to get those hanks of yarn ready to knit! (And it's even better if you have a 6 year old at home!)



Until next time, keep your nose in a book or your fingers in fiber.