Friday, May 8, 2009

Making a Cake & Knitting it Too!


Guess what arrived today?!? A small box from KnitPicks! As you can see, my ball winder is inside along with some merino/silk yarn I'm trying out and I also received a sample card of their shine worsted yarn.

Knit Picks box arrived today!



Inside my ball winder box


Here are the pieces for the ball winder.

The pieces and the instructions on the box


Here the thread guide is swung into the winder, shipped this way.

Ball winder shown shipped with thread guide



Before you can wind your yarns, you have to swing the thread guide away from the winder like this:

Thread guide extended and ready for use



Here, I have attached the hand held grip to the winder. This gives me the option to hold the winder in my hand.

The "handheld" version of my ball winder


I've attached the ball winder to my DH's desk to test the winder out. Notice the thread guide is extended.

Attached to table and ready for some action



This is my 2nd attempt at winding. As you can see, the results are wonderful!

Like magic, I have a "cake" of yarn (Premier Yarns Coral in beige)


Note: my first attempt at winding caused my ball of yarn to fly off the winder at top speed. No injuries were caused by this operator. Since this is an inexpensive ball winder and not the Royal-brand ball winder at my work, I have to wind the yarn a tiny bit slower. No cranking at great speeds. So instead of cranking at 75 mph, I just crank at 60 mph. Anyways, what's the rush?

This ball winder is a keeper. I highly recommend it for home use and going normal speed limit.

Oh, the yarns that came in my order are Shadow Kettle Hand Dye and Gloss Lace...both lace weight yarns. The shadow kettle is 100% merino (Begonia & Bordeaux on the right) and the Gloss Lace is 70% merino and 30% silk (Pinot & Ultramarine on the left). The colors are amazing! Look at the sheen on the Gloss Lace.

My Knit Picks lace yarns


This evening I will test drive my DIY swift with my new ball winder. I'll be back with more pictures. :)

**Update**

Here's some pictures of the swift and ball winder.

I moved the swift closer to the winder to take this picture. Normally, you would move the swift further away from the winder


My DIY swift in action. I placed the clothes pins above the yarn to keep the yarn from moving up too fast


Another "cake" created


2 comments:

Karen said...

You are really going to love having a ball winder right at home. And with your new cool swift that you made, you are all set! I really love the new yarn too, you chose such pretty colors.

Trina said...

Oh how I wish Knit Picks would ship to NZ, that yarn looks gorgeous! Can't wait to see what you use it for :) Or is it just stash??