Though Christmas has come and gone and we are now well into the new year, I want to quickly rave about the wonderful crafting presents I received.  Now, I’m not one to brag – but these are seriously awesome gifts.  That being said, I will only quickly touch on each crafting related present and how some of them have already made such an impact.

First, I received three awesome books, two of which I very strongly dropped some hints about.  Knitter’s Almanac, The Principles of Knitting and Finishing School. I have already begun reading Knitter’s Almanac and paging through the other two.  The wealth of knowledge in these three books is just unbelievable and I cannot wait to try to absorb it all!

Next are the two presents that have become incredibly helpful in my life.  It’s crazy to think I’ve been knitting for over ten years and I didn’t have a ball winder and swift… but I decided to be patient all these years and wind my yarn into annoying balls that would roll around everywhere.  Most annoyingly, my hand-balled yarn loved to roll away from me whenever it could be the most embarrassing or inconvenient.  For example, when I’m in a meeting, waiting at the doctor’s office, on public transportation, etc.  But now, this is a problem no longer.  Knitting from my center-pull yarn cake is like a dream come true.  But these embarrassing truths were not why I finally sucked it up and put these items on my wish list.  No, the dreadful hand-wound, center-pull ball I tried to use to two-ply, pulling from the outside and inside of the ball, when trying to use up the last of my hand-spun singles and ending up with the biggest, gnarled mess is why I gave in.  I love my spinning and after putting in so much time and effort into this one particular project and watching a good deal of spun singles be wasted nearly broke my heart.  No longer.  I have already used my ball winder and swift to ball up several projects-worth of yarn, of which the projects are all already cast-on) and used my ball winder to create a perfect center-pull cake for me to two ply on single onto itself.  No mess, just joy.

My third, rather large, present was a bulky Woolee Winder.  When my family first started asking me what I wanted for Christmas, aside from the previously mentioned, I didn’t seem to have much I needed and therefore didn’t want to ask for items I thought I maybe might want and find I don’t use later.  But eventually, I realized that was silly.  I have batts and bumps of fiber that I would like to spin bulky and some beautiful color gradient braids I would love to spin continuously, but wasn’t able with the bobbins and flyer that came with my Ladybug.  Plus, with a Woolee Winder, I don’t have to worry about stopping to change the hook to ensure the yarn goes on the bobbin evenly.  This has proven to be a difficulty of mine. Though, in all honesty, I did have to send the Woolee Winder back for some tweaks so that it fits my wheel perfectly, I couldn’t be happier to have received this present.  My Loop Bullseye Bumps better watch out, because as soon as my Woolee Winder is back, they are all being spun up!  Ooh, and my two braids of Fiber Optic of one gradient colorway that I have very big plans for.

I already have insane goals for this new year and I’ve started at the year in full force.  I’m just glad that I have some wonderful presents and tools to help me through it and make my crafting experiences that much sweeter!