Would a standard sized ball winder be able to hold about 1200 yards of fingering weight yarn (11 ounces) in one ball? Having dyed this lovely, continuous, knot-free skein, I’d hate to have to break it.
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10 comments
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October 21, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Cathy-Cate
I’ve put 880 yards on a standard ball winder, anyway. I would try it; but go slow, as I just had the experience of a lace weight alpaca ball go flying off the ball winder as I happily was winding away. I think it slipped, or the tension was a little high; if I’d been winding slower, I think I would have seen the already wound ball starting to go. It wasn’t a size thing as such, there was lots of room on the winder still, and when I put it back on, I was able to wind to the end of the skein thereafter.
If worse comes to worse and you have to break the yarn, remember alpaca spit splices nicely (that’s what I’ve been doing with my alpaca lace project, which is from mill ends, so without the luxury of a long run like yours!).
October 21, 2007 at 8:40 pm
Syne Mitchell
Or if you find yourself in North Bend, you’re welcome to use my jumbo ball winder…
October 22, 2007 at 10:41 am
Tsock Tsarina
I don’t actually know, but I’d suspect not. Then again, you have nothing to lose, right? Wind it, and if it fits, great. And if the winder only holds half of it – well, then you have to break it anyway. Unless you’d rather go to North Bend. Or buy a jumbo winder – always tempting, but it means delaying the gratification.
October 22, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Harena
I’ve managed to fit a half a pound of Sugar & Cream cotton yarn on one ball but I was reaaaallleee pushing it. I have no idea how many yards that is, unfortunately.
I just saw one of those jumbo winders a few weeks ago & I sooo want.. Am pondering putting it on my Christmas Wishlist!
Harena/Sandy
October 23, 2007 at 7:14 pm
astrbear
Cathy-Cate — the details of how I divided the giant skein will get posted later. The niceness of splicing alpaca is good to know. And I just love the project you are working on!
Syne — verry tempting! But I suspect we are both too busy this week to have it make sense. And I just couldn’t wait.
Lisa — It’s nice that the Queen of Giant Shawls doesn’t recoil in horror at the thought of breaking the yarn!
Sandy — Sounds like you are building quite a fine Christmas list!
Astrid
October 24, 2007 at 7:04 am
Tsock Tsarina
If you had seen how many ends I wove in on the Kitri shawl you wouldn’t think twice about one measly little break. Let me see… there was the place where I overlapped the two reds. There was the place where I ran out of black. There was the fact that I did the edging in five separate sections, accidentally breaking the yarn twice in the process.
You do the math, but I think that comes out to some 16 ends more than could reasonably be expected.
No, I don’t actually *like* weaving in ends, but I’m sure not afraid of breaking yarn.
October 24, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Harena
It is quite a list! The stuff dreams are made of…
…well, my dreams anyway!
Harena/Sandy
October 25, 2007 at 5:54 pm
astrbear
Lisa — do you weave in the ends in their naturally occurring state, or do you do the splicing thing that Cathy-Cate mentioned? Whatever way, you are now totally the expert on it — 16 extras, good grief!
Sandy — Oh, you have a Maltese Falcon on your list, too?
Astrid
October 25, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Tsock Tsarina
Depends on the context. In this case I didn’t bother with any splicing. The joins were all at the sides of the piece, and I knew if I made discreet little knots and wove in ends I could totally camouflage them under the edging – and so it proved. This is the good side of working with black – it may make you go blind during the knitting, but it’s very forgiving when you want to make ends disappear. I’d have done the weaving thing if I’d been out in the middle of the piece, all exposed-like – but I’d also have gone a long way to avoid having a join in the middle. In fact, I did do so: at one point I thought I had enough left to finish a row and I didn’t, so I actually tinked several hundred stitches back to the beginning to ensure a clean and hideable join. I do a combination of weaving and skimming that works well for me – in fact, sometimes I have a heard time finding it myself after the fact.
October 26, 2007 at 9:49 am
Harena
Hehehe, ayuppers!
. o O (I actually haven’t seen that movie {yet} even though I realized that was where the quote is from. Clearly my noir fanclub membership should be suspended till I do!)
Harena/Sandy