Winding up a potential disaster

Now that I own a few "fancy" yarns, the inevitable has happened. These fancy yarns do not come in handy center pull little balls, they come in hanks or other strangely formed lumps. Thus, I worked a yarn ball winder into my entertainment budget for the month.

In the past, I had my wonderful friend Karen (miss you!) wind my yarn for me. I figure now I should just be able to do this on my own, and plus they're only $19.99 at KnitPicks. The only thihng is, I really can't justify a swift right now, so this should be interesting. The swift is what can hold the yarn for you as you wind. In the absence of a swift, you can have someone hold the yarn wound around their hands. Mike has graciously volunteered for swift duty. I think we'll wait until both children are in bed to attempt this one. Luckily, we don't have any cats, or things could really get complicated. I just watched the tutorial video for the yarn winder. I hope this goes ok, sigh.

So, my winder is enroute, and I'm super excited. I also ordered a pair of straight needles (I love, love, love their Harmony wood needles) for my silk project. No matter how many needles you have, you can always buy more, who else is with me on this one? There are all the different sizes, sure, but the material also matters. I mostly have aluminum knitting needles, which work just fine and are very inexpensive. But for slippery yarn, bamboo or wood needles will grip the yarn better. They're more expensive, certainly, but worth it, in my opinion. I would love to buy sets of the Harmony, but again with the budget thing. Oh, if only we had a money tree. I just buy individual needles as I need them. This time I went for a pair of straight needles, which are my favorite. I do like circular needles for different purposes, but I'm old fashioned. If I can, I use the straights.

Anyway, that's my spin for the day. I'm still working on my sweater (pictures will come eventually). I'm on the second sleeve, so making progress. After that, I just have to do the neckline, weave in ends, and block. I also started my felting project, which I absolutely cannot wait to post about. Hopefully, that should be within the week. I'm making good progress on that.