Neccessity is the Mother of Invention.

So , around June last year I was part of the way through working on a rather large crochet project and had already started looking for my next big project to tackle. I came across this Flickr Pool and decided that I HAD to make a Babette blanket. I bought the PDF pattern from  here. The recommended yarn was Koigu KPM  but I wanted to use Colinette yarn as I love the vibrant colours (and the funky names - who wouldn't love a yarn called Salty Dog?) plus I like to buy British when I can. However having been unemployed for some time I didn't have the means to buy any yarn anyway so I contented myself with working out which Colinette colours would replace the Koigu colours. I was shocked at how much the yarn for one blanket would cost as there were around 17 colours and I would need 19 skeins! As Colinette skeins are much longer than Koigu I would probably have enough for 2 blankets or for another project using the same yarn so pretty good value in the long run?

Around this time my Dad came to stay for a few days and after he had gone I discovered that he had left me a cheque for my birthday which was the following month. Then I received an email from Loop alerting me to the fact that they were about to have a 20% off all yarns sale. Fate? Serendipity? Call it what you will - to cut a long story short the amount of the cheque equated to the required 19 skeins at the reduced price and the postage, so basically it cost me nothing! Fantastic!

These skeins have been sitting in a plastic bag artfully arranged in a wicker basket waiting for me to have the time to wind them into balls ready to be used............

Aren't they just lovely!? It makes me happy just to look at them.

I don't know about you but winding skeins into a ball is my least favourite pastime as I always get into a fankle so I decided that I needed to get a Swift/skein winder. Have you seen how expensive they are!? Plus they seem to be really difficult to get in the UK for some reason. After being pipped at the post on a couple of eBay auctions I realised that I had to get my thinking cap on and slowly a cunning plan was formed involving an expanding wine rack that I had bought a year ago in a local charity shop (1.50) and a Lazy Susan bought at Ikea (5.49).............

Put them together and you have got a swift/skein winder!

Ideal if you would rather spend your cash on yarn. You also end up with 2 useful objects in their own right at the end. It works brilliantly with the Colinette skeins (not sure if it would suit all skeins though) and it has taken the misery out of ball winding. I can do a bit now and then until I am ready to embark on the actual crocheting of the blanket.

Has anybody else out there come up with a budget friendly solution to a problem? I would love to hear about it!

Have a great weekendx

Comments

[monica]

that's genius!!

[Woo]

Crikey what a brilliant idea! That is totally ingenious!

[tea and cake]

You have just saved me a lot of money, as I was just about to order a wooden wool-windey thing! Wow, thanks!

[Bella Bheag]

Well done! Brings back memories of visiting my Granny and endless sessions of being used as a human skein winder - arms oot!

[Claire Smith]

Necessity is ---- as they say. No doubt this will just be the start of many more projects that require skeins of wool! Your Babette blanket will be wonderful,I have admired them for a long time, but not wanted to look into the cost of buying yarn to make one, so I will wait to see photos of yours and the colours you have chosen are lovely. I will stick with the wrist warmers I am crocheting, even though it's the middle of summer here, you have inspired me.

[Petit Filoux]

The yarn looks beautiful!! I always love to see photos of people's stash!!
And that is such a clever idea!! Why spend money on something that you're only going to use occasionally, it makes sense to come up with something more 'homemade'. x

[caireen]

very clever!!!xxx