(Okay, so it's 5 weeks and 6 days late, but I'm not complaining!)
Vern surprised me today by pinging me on MSN with: "Your swift is on it's way."
Check out the little video there at the bottom of the listing. Go ahead, I'll still be here. ;o)
Did you see how smoothly that baby turns? How it bounces back when the yarn hits a snag? Hallelujah, I've seen the light (at the end of the ball-winding tunnel)! This morning when I was fighting with my birch Joann swift, I vowed I would never use it again. And I won't. eBay, here it comes. (I'd never curse any of my blog readers with such a stubborn, stiff hindrance to knitting!) Now, before you start thinking that Vern is psychic (he does know a little about knitting, and saw my frustration this morning), I had pinged him a few minutes earlier with a link to that auction, as a friendly hint. I didn't think for a second he'd actually do it, though. He usually thinks things over for a day or three before making any kind of purchase. :o) Woo-hoo!
So, in a few days, I'll be winding all by my lonesome, instead of with several children helping me. (I'd run the old swift, while one child pre-tensions the yarn, another cranks the ball winder, and a third chants: "Mommy, is it my turn yet?" while the baby laughs and babbles and points her little chubby finger at the lot of us.)
In other news, despite the ball winding fiasco this morning, I didn't get any knitting done today. I did, however, make these (along with three meals and a little laundry and misc everyday stuff). First, a family photo.
Yep. Stitch markers. Four sets of which were made today. The sets are either five or six markers, in Not-so-wee (up to a 16mm needle), usual (up to 6mm) and Wee (up to 4mm) sizes. The two sets of purple ones are jumbo sized, with five markers each, one of which coordinates but stands out, for knitting in the round. The olive set is designed for lace, with six markers in Wee size, with one center stitch marker (it has a clasp that is easily repositionable), and one marker with a fun little drop on the bottom for marking the beginning of a round (you know, for all of the mobiuseseses you knit). You can see it there on the left of the green bunch.
Up next is a semi-precious gemstone set (read: fancy polished rocks) in Not-so-wee. I figure since a US17 needle is 12mm, these should work just fine for just about everyone. (Note: if you regularly knit with, say, size 35 needles, I think I might even be able to come up with something. ;o) The square rocks are Autumn Jasper (one of my absolute favorites), followed by assorted tumbled agate/adventurine/marble/whatever nugget drops, and some Swarovski crystals tossed in for good measure.
And last up, a set designed by my 7yo DS.
Not too shabby, eh? He stacked the beads and bent the headpins, I cut & curled & linked the rest. It was hard to keep him from taking off and designing thirty more sets while I was working on this one . . . that boy has a good eye for color. I never would have put the red seed beads with that turquoise--too daring. Too intense. Too bold for the woman who loves soft, soothing colors. (Witness the sweet purple, above?) But I really ended up liking these. There's no way I can keep them, though, because the little capitalist knows that these are destined for my LYS for resale, and he wants his cut. ;o) We'll see how it goes.
And now, I'm off to get ready for bed, and try to sneak in a few rows of Clue #2 before I crash.
Sweet knitterly dreams to you all . . .
