Thursday, March 08, 2007

Finally, fiber!

My dad is in town to visit for a few days and brought me the best present ever! A shiny new Ashford skein winder! I was able to assemble the thing and wind off 4 bobbins full of yarn in the time it took to wind two bobbins with the niddy-noddy. This thing is a life saver for big projects, I had so many bobbins full of finished yarn after winter break, I was avoiding the task of winding them off so I could set the yarn. That much niddy-noddy action kills my arms.

He also brought me a McMoran yarn balance, which is a fun and geeky little spinning tool. It's a small plastic balance that allows you to estimate how many yards per pound you are getting. The yardage estimates seem to be pretty accurate too. For larger spinning projects this thing will be very useful. I think if you need a fairly small and precise amount of yarn for a project, counting yardage on the skein winder or niddy-noddy would be better, but for anything else this is the clear way to go.

Now if only my thumb was better and I had less reading to do, I could finish spinning the Shetland over spiring break. Oh well, there should be a few slow evenings for spinning before summer.

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