Leftovers

I love making fiber art projects. Big afghans, little hats, smart gloves and even cute dog scarves. Anything that I can get my creativity, complexity and style on for creating an awesome new piece. I’ve made king size afghans to stroller covers, so nothing is to be sneezed at when it comes to design. However, one thing I find that every, and I mean every, project has in common is leftovers. Those pieces of yarn that just are no longer staying neatly wrapped in that skein or in that machine wrapped ball. Nope, not happening. Or my little dog helper has decided to rearrange on the floor while trying to get his toy that he happened to toss in the middle of the yarn…. I end up with strings and piles of different types, colors, textures of yarn. My past method of dealing with these little leftovers was to either sit and wrap balls of yarn myself of each one, or have my husband untangle the mess first (he’s amazingly good at this somehow) and then wrap the balls of yarn by hand. Now this is a tedious chore. And depending on the yarn, can begin to rub your fingers raw. It isn’t a task I liked and so that is why I ended up with a bag of mixed strings rather than a bag of yarn balls. Fate and chance changed all this last fall.  While we were out shopping at one of my fav yarn boutiques, Ply! Yarn, my husband spotted something he thought I might like. A yarn ball winder!!! Yes, a device to save my skin and reduce time on all those leftovers!!  We purchased it happily and I brought it home to test it out. The winder is a simple, mechanical device, attaches to my sewing table and with minimal effort, turns a pile of string into a neatly wound ball of yarn in minutes! Nope, I don’t like this, I LOVE this. I have now gone through my entire leftover yarn stash and saved what I could. I now have a bin of neatly made yarn balls. No more strings and feelings of remorse as I look at a pile of yarn gone to it’s resting place. If you have not discovered one of these (as I may be the last person who has now done so) please do check it out. A yarn winder is so worth it, IMHO.