Someone 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.
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.
