The one thing I hate about knitting...

Picture the scene... All active projects are finished (excluding gigantic ongoing projects like the Beekeeper's Quilt) and you have nothing that urgently needs to be made. You look at your Ravelry queue and remember the pattern purchased a year ago (Whippoorwill). You recall stashing the perfect Kauni yarn for it too. A week or so passes - a week you've been filling with little diversionary things, and you see one of your friends is making that exact pattern in the same yarn and it looks lovely. So you get the yarn out... but it looks like this, so you leave it on the table for another week.
Wip-in-waiting.
Yes, it's sad but true. My hatred of winding skeins into usable cakes/balls - especially when they are large like this 150g beauty - is enough to cause serious delay to my plans. In fact I have spent the last two nights AVOIDING any crafting so I don't have to deal with it. It really is the one thing I hate about knitting, it seems like a huge obstacle when all I want to do is cast on. I am not quite sure why I have such a mental block about it, but suspect it's at least partly due to my horrible swift (I won't drone on about that again - you can find my former lament here) and disliking the mechanical yarn winder - I think this skein is just too big to wind by hand onto my nostepinne. Does anyone know how to summon a Yarn Fairy who can take care of these things? 

So my WIP update is very light this week as the only project on my needles is the 'deja-vu' socks which I refuse to photograph until finished. If I'm tired of showing the various incarnations of that one skein of yarn, you must be equally bored with seeing them.

Onto books then. This is at least something different for I, a cat-lover, am reading The Perfect Puppy by Gwen Bailey. It has come as quite a shock to those who know me, but after much deliberation, we are planning to get a puppy later in the year. It's a terrible cliché, isn't it? Middle aged mum looking to replace her baby, and all that. But it's true. I worked long hours until I had the children and for the last 7 years have been at home with them so I'll be completely lost when both children are at school in September. I can't imagine days with no-one to follow me about or make a mess and as I have said before, I most definitely do NOT want more kids. Cats wouldn't last long here as we live right on a road and it's a companion that I'm after, someone to take out and about and who will enjoy my love of nature. All things considered, a dog seems to be the best option. (The alternative is an obsessively-clean house and my heart really isn't in that, it feels like a life wasted.) Aside from the selfish reasons listed above, we both think it will be lovely for the children to grow up with a pet - D and I grew up with cats, dogs and horses and share a love of animals as a result.  Don't tell anyone, but I'm really quite excited about it! 

Today's link: WIP Wednesday

32 comments

  1. I will do it for you! I love winding yarn into wee cakes!

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  2. I have one of these (http://www.u-nitt.com/content/images/thumbs/0000257_u_nitt_compact_th700_winder.jpeg) and I use it almost every day - it turns all yarn into the most delicous-looking yarn cakes ever! :)
    xo,
    wink

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    1. It's the same one I have and it drives me bonkers - I already broke the first and am onto my second *blush*

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  3. I am WITH YOU! I don't have any kind of winder or swift, so have to do all my yarn by hand over the back of two chairs. Yawn. But it never takes quite as long as you think, and it'll be so lovely once you get started!

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  4. I don't have a fairy for winding it up but I do nab the bigger childrens arms and sit having a chat with them while I wind and they hold the skein, I catch up with them and it saves being bored to tears while winding the yarn. On the puppy front, I don't have to face the empty nest syndrome just yet, I did for a couple of months when my fourth started school and I was in latter stages of expecting our 5th child have a house empty at school times and oh I can't tell you how horrible that was ! The quiet and with all jobs done the boredom of it and I to don't want to go down the path of obsessive clean house, it just wouldn't work with 8 children !. I think your onto a winner with a puppy.

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    1. That sounds wonderful. I wish my children would sit still for long enough.... I might try my mum instead!

      8 children gives me chills Ruth, I don't know how you do it! :D
      xxx

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  5. I'm right there with you hating winding hanks into cakes or balls... I don't have a swift/ball winder right now so I end up using a toilet paper roll to make cakes... while it works it takes forever! My birthday is in the end of April so I've been dropping some not-so-subtle hints to my mom & boyfriend I'd like a swift & ball winder :)

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    1. I used to use a toilet roll too - I love the nosty for small things but big skeins like this seem endless

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  6. Love the yarn, just beautiful. As a two daughter, two dog owner, I can't imagine going to the bathroom without having someone outside my door, since, like, 1994.

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  7. A puppy, it will be such a joy to have a hairy little one:) Anyway, the yarn looks so yummy.

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  8. Winding your own kauni is so much better than buying it in balls. I made a shawl a few years ago and came to realise that the different balls were not wound in the same direction, ie one went red, orange yellow.... then next went ......yellow, orange, red. Which meant that I had to rewind the whole lot anyway after getting really frustrated with it!

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  9. I don't have the same dislike for winding as you do but maybe if you find a comfy place to sit, have your favorite beverage on hand, and your favorite music or podcast ready to play, you might enjoy the methodical process of winding your beautiful skein by hand into a ball? I know that I enjoy that process in the right atmosphere.

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  10. OOooo, but it's so beautiful. Surely you could bribe someone to wind it for you so you can start your project. :-D

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  11. I have never had the pleasure of having to wind yarn up, but i know one day it will happen to me.

    I think dogs are the best companions, even though I own a cat.... Dogs are definitely more loyal

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  12. I second Little Macaroon, I don't have a winder and do t on chairs....as much as I always dread it, it isn't actually quite so bad when you start....that yarn is gorgeous....go on, we're all dying to know what it will look like knitted up.

    We got a puppy at the beginning of last year just as my littlest boy started part time school....he is good company, not as messy as the kids and the excuse for walking is so good for the whole family.

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  13. My parents got me a puppy when I went to Secondary School - but really I think it was just an excuse to make me train him! He was wonderful and so loved by the whole family!

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  14. I know what you mean! I see it as a penalty for liking really nice yarn!!

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  15. I use the winder and swift at my LYS, it is hand crank and you can play with the tension to make the cake how you like it. My hubby is my winder. He has got the tension down pat for what I like. A big plus is the owner of the shop also is very picky about how her yarn is wound so it makes it nice. In fact, she is the one who educated me on why it was so important.

    I am looking forward to a time in the future of having a dog again. For now I love my friends dog Bear.

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  16. Oh Sarah, I agree 100%! I dislike caking up my hanks of yarn. It's gotten better since I own an accordion type swift that my dear love bought for me. But I still dislike it - and if I buy a hank at a LYS I usually beg them to cake it for me O:) But sometimes...sometimes it can't be avoided. It definitely does take a little longer to get around to knitting.

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  17. I can definately recommend a dog,my 3yr old and Niles(black lab) are such good buddies, I am very fortunate to have Bern blessed with my boy and the doggy adds to the empty nest syndrome that would potentially ensue as my son heads to preschool.

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  18. I can definately recommend a dog,my 3yr old and Niles(black lab) are such good buddies, I am very fortunate to have Bern blessed with my boy and the doggy adds to the empty nest syndrome that would potentially ensue as my son heads to preschool.

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  19. I wind balls around my thumb (not a euphemism) takes forever and I HATE it grrrrrrrr! Kids and hubster are always asking why I buy yarn this way.
    Beautiful yarn though lovely!
    xxxxxxxxx

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  20. i'm curious why you dislike winders? watching the smooth wood and lovely wool spin is a meditative activity for me, and yarn cakes, so beautiful, sigh. :)

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  21. My past few caking experiences have been a little traumatic as well (tangles!), I hope you're able to get over the hump soon, that yarn looks yummy!

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  22. When I buy yarn wound in that format I cake it before stashing it, then when I want to cast on I can, straight away? X

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  23. You can always send it to me, I'll wind it and send it back ;) (bet you thought I was telling you to just send it to me, without the sending it back part!) I love my swift though, so that helps!

    incidentally, that yarn is gorgeous.

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  24. You won't regret the puppy. My perfect dog, and best friend for the last 11 years, died just over a month ago. The house is missing something without her. Dogs really do make great companions, as do cats, but like you said, with dog you can take them out and about.
    Unfortunately puppy's do tend to chew things, like knitting needles!!!

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  25. Would your local LYS not have some gear you can use? We used to let people use ours where I worked and asked for a donation to the charity piggy bank...

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