Manly or Girly?

I can't believe how quickly this week has passed! Thursday already? Monday after dinner, I had John help me with my yarn. He bought me a yarn winder for my birthday. Before, I was winding yarn manually on a nostepinne, which is a Scandanavian wooden winder. Although the nostepinne did the job, it was very tiring to wind yarn manually, especially when you're working with 600 yards of yarn!

"Why would someone need to wind yarn?", you might ask. Well, when you buy good yarn, especially hand painted stuff, it normally comes in these twisted yarn ropes. Not easy to work with in that state. So, you make it more manageable by winding it into some type of ball. A winder makes it possible to make a center-pull ball by leaving an open core.

Anyway, earlier this year, John made me a yarn swift (cost of materials, about $4.00, a $75.00 difference from ones you can purchase!) which holds the yarn and spins. Here he is helping me wind yarn:


Notice that DIY Network's Knitty Gritty is on the TV in the background! I'm SO dorky. Once you are done winding the yarn, it goes from big circle of yarn (like above on the swift) to yarn cakes!


I kept bringing out hanks of yarn from my stash so John could wind it for me. He said a porking was due to prove his masculinity and make up for me taking a picture of him. I told him he was using a cool technical gadget, so it wasn't like he was doing something girly. I mean, what if he had been winding up stereo cable or something? Would that be girly?