Wonder what a cat would do with it…
Tuesday February 26th 2008, 2:08 pm
Filed under: Amaryllis,Knit

yet another amaryllis is just opening up)hamster ball in its cage

yet another amaryllis is just opening upSomeone at Stitches, Jill Stephens, invented something that I had been wishing for years that someone would. I saw someone carrying one around, went looking for the booth, and instantly bought one. How could I not. I am someone who likes her yarn in nice round balls the way yarn balls were meant to be. I’ll knit from the flattened cakes that ballwinders create, but…they’re lacking something yarnly about them somehow, although, truth be told, they are easier to knit from. Cakes unwind as you go without having to do that extra yank or having to nudge it so that the current position of the yarn coming off doesn’t have the weight of the entire ball on top of it. (And I wind one pound scoured hanks from cones into single balls, so you know that that can be an issue. Do it with too much oomph, and suddenly that planet of wool is throwing itself across the room.)

The vendor laughed at my instant take on her gadget: it’s a hamster ball! And you can let it roll around on the floor for the cat to chase–don’t have a cat, myself–or you can put it in the handbaggy-type holder it comes with to hold it still so it can’t run away from you.hamster ball open

Nifty, nifty idea for those of us who love nice round balls the way they were meant to be. Her idea seemed to be more about doing fair isle without tangling, but yeah, whatever. You use yours your way and I’ll use mine mine.hamster ball for yarn


14 Comments so far
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Nice! That looks like it would help me enjoy the knitting process more for the knitting and less for the fidgeting with incoming yarn 😉

Comment by Amy 02.26.08 @ 3:20 pm

I like it! I want one!
Oh, and the gadget is cool, too. 🙂

Behold, my new address.

Comment by Toni 02.26.08 @ 3:24 pm

Oh yeah. The cats would LOVE that! they adore the ballwinder. That thing would give them paroxsysms of delight! Not to mention it’s cool in a modern deco kind of way….

Comment by Carol 02.26.08 @ 3:25 pm

What a neat-o contraption! I think it would be nice to keep yarn from getting all snarled up on other things in the knitting bag!

Comment by Amanda 02.26.08 @ 4:43 pm

Woo hoo! A new way to torture all four of my cats.

I love it.

Comment by Tiny Tyrant 02.26.08 @ 4:56 pm

That is a great idea! I have been using microwave plastic containers that have a hole in the top, yours is nicer. Enjoy it!

Comment by Vicki 02.26.08 @ 5:53 pm

Hey, and the yarn won’t pee in it, the way a hamster would! (I bet you can guess how I know about the hamster’s habits…)

I knit from flat cakes from the ball winder, but still think one of these would be quite useful when the Corgis want to leap all over me and my current project and get tangled in the yarn while I am trying to knit on the couch.

Comment by Paula 02.26.08 @ 5:59 pm

I want one!! My puppy love chasing the ball when it goes flying cause you know it will go flying at some point (at least for me)

=)

Comment by Qutecowgirl 02.26.08 @ 6:02 pm

Oohhh!!! I need one of those! My cat will love it and I’ll be much happier than with her chasing naked balls :-}

Comment by Diana Troldahl 02.26.08 @ 8:59 pm

Oooh! And my puppy couldn’t chew on the yarn while I’m trying to knit. What a clever gizmo. Thanks for sharing.

Comment by Channon 02.27.08 @ 7:23 am

cool – I use a zip lock bag with one corner of the zip part cut off. but that looks so much better 😀

I will not buy I will not buy I will not buy —

Comment by rho1640 02.27.08 @ 8:41 am

Have Zip Bags and Flat cakes of yarn. But I love the idea of having a hard plastic ball for my yarn to sit in. My 3 yr old Tuxedo kitty has a wool fettish and loves to chase/steal any wool yarn that crosses her path.

Comment by Danielle from SW MO 02.27.08 @ 1:04 pm

That is one of those “I wish I had thought of that!”

Comment by Sonya 02.27.08 @ 7:15 pm

I saw those ball doohickies at Stitches, and was umimpressed! Personally, I prefer to keep my balls sitting next to me, inside my knitting bag, and nicely tangle-free in an improvised tomato-sock yarn bra. But then I’m anti-ballwinder too, as they seem to encourage kinkiness…in the yarn, I mean. However, I must say that I love the neato burrito pens with built-in tape measure that the same booth was giving away…

Comment by pamela 03.03.08 @ 3:17 pm



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