Swift

and a ball winder, too!

Yes, I splurged a little over the weekend.

But it's totally justified.

See, I've survived all these years without a swift and ball winder combo because I could just use the ones at the store. I would either wind the yarn when I bought it, or bring it with me when I worked.

This was a good system. It also allowed me to spend money on yarn rather than these tools. Of course, I had to wait until the weekend to wind or make a special stop on my way home from my day job, but it worked.

However, I recently required a metric ton of yarn from a freelance client that I'm going to start swatching and talking about. Much of it is in hanks that need to be wound before I can use it.

Now suddenly I need to be able to wind any time of the day or night. Doing it all by hand would just kill me. Shoot, I recently wound a skein of sock yarn by hand, it took a good half hour or longer.

Granted, winding by hand is a bit of a work out (if you squint. Work with me here. I brace the yarn over my feet so I have to lean forward and back to wind. And then you get the arm work out. Come on, if fidgeting burns calories winding yarn by hand totally has to.) and I'll be missing out on that, but time is of the essence.

Priorities
Of course the first yarn I wound wasn't client yarn.

No, it was a skein of the Brooks Farm Solo I bought at Rhinebeck.

But it was totally justified.

Remember how Shirley Paden was the guest speaker at the grand opening for Westport Yarns?

And she was signing her new design book? And I got a copy?

Well, tomorrow she'll be back at the store for another book signing from 5pm to 6 pm. Then at 6pm she'll be teaching part one of her sweater design class.

And I'm going to sit in on it. The homework was to have a sketch and swatch of your potential sweater. I don't have a sketch, but I've been swatching my fingers off.

Yes, yes, I successfully executed the Schleppy Sweater. And the Bias Striped V-Neck looks good on paper.

But I'm sure she'll be sharing all kinds of tips that will make life easier going forward. And I'll have an even deeper understanding because I've been through it once (twice?). I'll totally know what she's talking about.

This sweater is going to be a cardigan with Celtic cables and a hood. I've apparently never mentioned it on the blog before and don't have any off-line notes about it. However, I've been thinking about it for quite a while now, so I'm sure the execution will be fine.

Puppy Response
That is Samson checking out my new toys in the picture.

As you might imagine Baru was frightened by them. I swear that dog gets more timid the older he gets.