My children have discovered the joy that is making skeins turn into center pull balls!
I used to have to beg someone to be the arms to hold the skein while I made the center skein ball. Too many times I ended up using a chair. Then, I found a wonderful shop on eBay that would send a ball winder and a swift to me in Tokyo, and I ordered it. YIPPEE! I love eBay. I love everyone who will ship international.
So the winder and swift have arrived, and for two whole weeks I have not needed to wind anything. Then last night I found a messy ball in my newly organized stash and figured I'd have a go at my new winder. Enter children (they must have sensed my excitement?) and LOOKIE HERE, it's fun for the whole family! After that one ball, we had to wind another one.
And then just for grins I got out a sock skein, and set up the swift. They were so impressed, and looked at all the arms stretched out, and they were even more impressed when they saw that it would actually turn. My 4yo said, "It's just like watching Earth turning around!"
To make it fair, we have to count how many seconds each person gets to turn the crank and watch the swift go around. The joy is occasionally paused for me to say, "Whoa, slow down there, cowboy." They love the variegated yarns, and get into a trance-like mode watching the colors change as the yarn is wound.
I swear it's as relaxing as a massage for them. They breathe more slowly, and go into a zone. It's wild. But then, look at these gorgeous colors -- Yarntini in Cherry Cordial. Yum. Who wouldn't get into a zone looking at that? More about Yarntini later.
On a totally different note, here are more flowers from my garden -- I have no idea what these are, but they are especially plentiful this year. We've had hot days and not a lot of rain (although theoretically it's been "rainy season" for about 10 days now).
Back to Yarntini. So, if I weren't such a mature person, I'd be dancing around singing a na-na-na-na-na-na song -- I scored some yarn here in Tokyo that sold out the first day in the US. Yarntini sent a note to its fans advising us to watch the Sweet Sheep website -- that they would be available the next day. Every time I checked, they weren't posted yet. I checked the next day, and WHOOPS, they are all gone.
I call the local yarn store when I've heard that they sell Addis and sock yarn as a hobby, sort of under the counter (remember the post with the secret spy stuff and code words?) I wasn't sure if I needed a special handshake or not. Turns out, they have 6 colors of Yarntini, and they are also selling the Addis for 1500 yen. That's about $12.50 right now. It rocked my world. I've been sending my husband and visitors all over to score me Addis of various sizes and lengths, and I have a source right here, about a 5 minute bike ride from my house.
So, the nice person who answers the phone remembers me (it's rather easy to remember a Japanese-speaking blonde woman who comes into a yarn store with a very well-behaved small child who knows not to touch yarn, but to ooh and aah over it politely, and then play cars on the floor quietly), and she agrees to bring some yarn and needles in for a secret hand-off the next day. Only one problem with the needles -- they only have 1 size zero. I want two. She says, "no problem, I'll just teach you the magic loop way."
So, right here in my backyard, I scored 3 skeins of Yarntini, 2 pairs of Addis (100cm size 1 and size 0), and a lesson in Magic Loop knitting *and* Judy's magic cast on. The yarn shop woman (my new best friend, I hope I can find out her name) even found pages out of KNITTY to do so, and the Baudelaire pattern as well.
Meet the newest additions to the s(t)ockpile: Cherry Cordial, 4-8-15-16-23-42 (gotta love that), and Appletini.
What, you'd like a better view of the 4-8-15-16-23-42?
And one more of the Appletini?
Did I mention that I happened to buy some other yarn, too? After all, I have all that extra room in my 3rd stash cupboard.
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