Mostly Not About Moving

Yay me, I came up with something to write about that is not totally about moving!

It is a little bit about moving, but only because, with my swift and ball winder packed away, I had to come up with another way to wind yarn. Gasp! Back in the dark ages!

The thing is, I don't need another skein of sock yarn ready to go yet, but I got past the heel of the second sock of the current pair recently, and it occurred to me that I might be ready to finish it at a time when yarn winding is not convenient. Like, you know, on the plane. (Honestly, it could be done on a plane ... but not easily.) So since I had a little time, I decided to use it making this:

Into this:

So it would be ready to knit from when the time comes.

Without the swift and ball winder, the easiest way to do it is if you have two similar-size chairs. Arrange them back to back:

And put the yarn around the tops, moving the chairs just apart enough that the yarn stays in place.

I started out by winding the yarn around my thumb, so that it wouldn't make a ball that was too tight:

When I had to put it down, I slipped a pen in the center to hold that for a bit, but eventually slipped it out and kept winding.

All together, it took about half an hour, more than it would take with the usual tools. But it wasn't hard work.

And now, we're ready to go when the time comes.

Me and my handful of yarn.