Bad Influences

I have decided that JudyL  is not a good influence on me.  First she goes off of the wagon about buying fabric which gave me the ok to buy some fabric today while I was at my Guild Meeting,   (more about that later).

Both of these are very injurious to my health.  On the left is a ball of yarn that I am in the process of winding.  I used to do a lot of knitting in a previous life....and I do remember that you really do need a winder to take away the tediousness of winding yarn, plus it is easy to get the %&**& stuff tied up in knots if you are not careful.  On the right is a picture of a pair of gloves I want to knit and I really need a scarf and hat. On the left is the yarn I am rolling into a ball.  It is really gorgeous and has purple in it of course.

I let another friend convince me to go to a knitting store with her a couple of days ago, and that was the second mistake I have made this week.  I would never have gone to the knitting store if not for JudyL going on and on about how much fun knitting socks is. And since I have cleaned out a closet in my spare quilting room and have found some room it has to be filled up, and quickly.  Therefore I will knit myself a scarf, and I must have several choices of yarn, right?  No socks for me, that yarn is just too tiny. But scarves, for now, they sound wonderful.

Great.  I could buy 4 scarves for what the yarn cost of course, but that is not what we knit for, right? Or quilt for, for that matter.  I think it is so we can sit down and feel like we are being constructive.

But, I digress.  I buy the yarn, buy the needles, a CD so I have a great big picture I can see so I can tell what I am doing, and come home with my purchase.  Now I just need to find the time to teach myself.

I must admit about a month ago this same friend I am not naming convinced me to go to another yarn store here in town (there are only 3 and I now have visited 2 of them, lol, and haven't knitted anything yet) and I also bought enough yarn there and some needles to make a scarf.  However, you have to go to their class that they are going to charge you for to learn how to use this expensive stuff you just bought.  Well, that didn't sit real well with me and I have not been back.  Then I decide to pick up a ball of yarn and another pair of needles (didn't like the bamboo ones from the fancy yarn store) from Hancock's so I can practice and not mess up the good stuff.

I am still digressing here.  I tried knitting with the cheap stuff and couldn't keep the youtube pictures still long enough to follow them, so I put it away.  Now of course I can't find it.  No telling in what clean area I stuffed the sack with the pretty cheap yarn and needles that aren't blunted in.  Okay, no problem, I will just use this new stuff that I bought (pictured above) and look at the CD on my computer which I can stop every few seconds easily enough and practice casting on.  I also bought a book at the expensive store and have no idea where it is.  It had some decent pictures...can I find it....nope.

Ooops!  The yarn is in this long skein that is twisted and I seem to remember that it needs to be wound into a ball.  Wow!  I need a yarn winder!  No problem, I have a couple of hours to kill before I go back for the night guild meeting.  I have to go to both each month because I am the membership chairman. Thank goodness that will be over in another 3 months.

Have any of you priced a yarn winder lately?  The manual one is in the 40 dollar range and the electric one is in the 90 dollar range!  Holy Makerel and all the ships at sea!!! I think I will wind my yarn by hand for a while. 

Just want to thank JudyL and my nameless friend for getting me into another craft, lol.