Ball Winders I've Accumulated over 25 Years

 I used the search function on my blog (top left corner on desktop version) to look up if I had any posts about my ball winders. I did! https://tracykm.blogspot.com/search?q=ball+winder It seems my beloved German one, I bought in 2004. Okay, should I retitle this blog post? 

I posted a video on YouTube about my three ball winders. I said I would post about how I ended up with the last winder. 

In late January, when I was looking for new crochet channels to watch, I came across a few channels reviewing a Caydo rechargeable yarn winder. One of these channels was Knotty Bear Crochet.  He had just gotten the winder given to him, and he was also in Ontario. I decided to go ahead and order one, using a code from another YouTube channel, for a discount. They were on sale (pre-discount) for about $95Cdn.

About a week after I placed my order, I was thinking I should have a shipping notice or something. I looked on the Shop app and it quickly flashed up as in transit, then it changed to "awaiting information" and then something about arriving in September. WHAT?

I emailed Caydo. They responded saying it was out of stock in Canada, and "would not be available." Basically, none of the models were available. They said they could refund me. It was phrased like "if you want it, we'll refund you". Of course I wanted a refund. They suggested I buy it through their Amazon store. I took a look, and it would cost me $16 more. I was annoyed. I asked why I could buy it through there, but not on their website, which listed them as available. They responded that websites take a bit of time to update, but they can't move items from their Amazon store to their website. 

Not feeling the love anymore, I opted  to just order a different brand. I couldn't find one that was rechargeable (for a comparable price), so I pretty much just picked one that had good reviews, the description said it was an upgraded German motor. 

It came, and gosh, it feels so cheap. It's so light. The instructions had some translation issues. 

You only need to be three years old to use this winder!! Click on images for bigger views.

I've been using it. It's okay. I saved about $30 by not getting a rechargeable one, but I wish the cord was longer. 

I still have a fondness for my little $1 German winder. They just don't make them like they used to!

More Ribbed Beanies for Charity

 These are really piling up! I've also got one drying (I don't usually wash them, but it's an older yarn and a little bit on the skimpy side, and I was pretty sure washing it would let the yarn bloom), and I just started a new one.

This is Loops & Thread  "Facets."  It didn't have a label, but I had a couple of other similar balls. This one though, made be so congested! It weighs 83gr. 

This is the same yarn. Some fun macro close ups to show how it's an untwisted yarn. It will likely pill like crazy.

Again it weighs in at 83gr.

These two hats meant I had a very small ball left. I found some Loops & Threads "Charisma" and did some stripes.  This one weighs in at 98gr.

It was a little harder to find a yarn to go with the brown/grey leftover. I used two different black worsted weight yarns and did basically stripes for the body of the hat. I couldn't tell a difference between the two black balls, but I was afraid once I was done, and went in the sun, it would be glaringly obvious. 

This one weighs in at 109gr. 

I need to get back to my red scarves! Plus, I'm making a sweater on the LK150. I can't wait to show that one!!

Yarn In: 500gr

Yarn Out: 373gr + 2543gr = 2916gr

Balance:  2416 gr more OUT than in

Costs:  $15.81

I Crocheted A Sweater!

 Back in the fall/early winter, I started watching some new (to me) crochet and knitting YouTube channels. One was TL Yarn Crafts. One of her videos was an attempt to crochet a sweater in 24 hours. Really? Of course it was chunkier yarn. I'm not fond of crochet in chunky yarns. Crochet stitches are thicker than knit stitches.  I liked patterns from I Love Tinderbox  but frankly, I didn't want to pay for a pattern. After all, it's just math, right? I also looked at a lot from MJ's Off The Hook. The interesting thing is she lives about an hour from me, and we were both small creators at the same time, in same FB groups. She really ran with it and is now a huge crochet designer! Most of her patterns were yarns that were thicker. As well, although most patterns are free on her blog, they are incredibly annoying to read there. You can, of course, pay for a proper pattern. I also wanted to do top down, raglan style, but how to account for larger bust? 

I searched and searched. Finally, I settled on Silver Moon, by Drops. It's made top down, in pieces, and not a raglan. Exactly what I was looking for LOL. I had swatched a couple other patterns in a couple different yarns, but nothing was working. This one looked pretty easy and straight forward. 

I decided I was going to re-use yarn from an old favourite sweater. I posted in 2012 that I was going to re-work it then. I seemed to have actually started that re-knit. I don't know what happened. It was in my stash, complete with the needles. I really did like that sweater, but it was pretty shapeless. 

I had a lot of smaller balls due to the adjustments I had previously made with the sweater. I didn't pay attention at first to the colour sequencing when starting a new ball, but then I did part way through. 

I was crocheting so much, I actually decided to get a new crochet hook (after watching a bunch of videos). Not much available at Wal-Mart, but this one felt good. You can't try them out so you never know. I also watched a video on gadgets for crochet, and one tested a tension ring. She didn't like it, but but I had noticed the yarn was leaving essentially, a burn mark, across my finger. The ring really helped. 

I knit the back in the size Medium. I started with a larger size, but I'm glad I downsized. The nice thing about this pattern is that you can switch between UK and US terminology and have it circle all the instructions for your size choice. 

I pretty much followed the back exactly. For the front, I started with the same size Medium, but then increased in the front on either side of centre (by a bit, not exactly at the centre, but about halfway between centre and edge). I really wanted short rows, but had no idea how to do that in double crochet. 

I noticed that the right side (as worn) was smoother along the bottom than the left side.

When I got closer to the front bottom, I looked up how to do short rows, and I added some to round out the front piece's bottom, to allow for the extra length I need on my front. 

The sleeves were to be picked up and crocheted down. I could not make sense of the instructions. Upon looking really close at the picture, there seemed to be a decorative join. I ditched that and just attached like usual. 

Then I sewed it up. Then I went to weave in ends. 

What is this?! I found out I had done something with weaving in the end...I did it over a seam, and it was so tight it was puckering the right side. I tried really hard to unweave that end, but I could NOT find the end!! Eventually I cut it, and tied in another strand to loosen it off. That's the True Tracy Way, LOL.

I really like the sweater. However, I think the yarn has been overworked. It feels a bit crispy. And it pills very easily. And the lower front edge is actually a bit too wide. The yarn has a decent drape, but it is tenting out over my front hips.

When I tried it on, I decided the V neck was a bit low for work. I decided to crochet a mesh insert. It was hard to wrap my head around how to do this. I felt like I was crocheting backwards on every other row. This picture doesn't show it well. I put a light colour napkin behind the insert, but you can see the back of the sweater too. 

Some of the seaming went well. However, the sleeves gave me some issues. I finally marked every 5 rows on each edge to match them up. And the seam shows more on this one sleeve than the other seams. 

I ended up with two different weights. First was just the sweater on the scale, and the second was with it in a bowl (tared out).  So, I'm using a mid-way weight. Mexican Wave DK, 5mm hook. I'm going to round it up a smidge to 400gr even.

Just before I finished, I found a bag with about 4-5 unused balls of this yarn!!! What?! I'll have to see if that's enough for another sweater--maybe knit, since it uses less yarn (smaller, because I'm shrinking a bit). 

Yarn In: 500gr

Yarn Out: 400gr + 2143gr = 2543gr

Balance:  2043gr more OUT than in

Costs:  $15.81

Red Acquisition

 I popped into a Dollar Tree on my way home from somewhere and made sure to look at the yarns. Dollarama hadn't had anything in red-red (just maroon) and I couldn't even find the yarn at Giant Tiger recently. The yarn at DT is pretty crappy.  Some of it was Premier brand, and I hear vloggers rave about it but it felt icky. They did have this yarn. I haven't used a similar yarn for scarves, so I thought it would be a nice addition to the red stash. 

It feels quite soft. It doesn't have that "dry" feel of other similar yarns I've tried. I got 4 balls, so 200gr, and $7.91. I just realized I forgot to figure out the "per day" cost of my yarn buying. I had spent so long NOT buying yarn, I forgot that I used to include that. I won't do it today, but maybe at the end of the year. 

Yarn In: 200gr + 300gr = 500gr

Yarn Out: 2143gr

Balance:  1643 gr more OUT than in

Costs:  $7.91 + $7.90 = $15.81

3 Easy Ribbed Chunky Beanies and YouTube!

 I've knit some more beanies! Pattern from PasioKnit Kelsie. 

I've shown the pale one at the top left already. The top right was the next one. I used both ends of the Cascade "Pinwheel". I made sure they were at different points in the phasing. This hat used 88grams.

Here's a close up of the extra decreases I did at the top. I feel it just lies a bit flatter. 

This hat took I was left with a small ball of the "Pinwheel."  It was not enough to double strand another hat, and I wasn't sure if it would be enough when paired with another yarn.

I decided I would pair it with a dark blue for the next one. I had two small balls of different dark blues in worsted weight. I couldn't believe that was all I had. I decided I would do two rounds with the larger of the blues, held with the Pinwheel, then one round with the smaller ball of blue. 

I got close to the top and it was obvious one ball wouldn't last. I ripped back a ways and alternated the two blues. However, I still couldn't make it to 11".  I realized that it's not just 11", it's 11" plus the decrease rows. In the end, I did have to cut one of the blues to finish a round with the other blue...increasing the number of ends to weave in... It was about 10" when I started the decreases, and I didn't add the extra decrease rows. 

This hat weighs in at 93gr. I have a small amount of the Pinwheel left, of mainly the palest colours. 

Over on my YouTube channel, I added a new video that includes a tutorial on how I do the alternate cable cast on. It's a great cast on when you're going to be ribbing, especially if both ends are visisble, like a scarf. I'd really love it if you hopped over to my YouTube and checked it out. I have no plans to become a vlogger big time, but it's still nice to see your work get appreciated. 

Yarn In: 300gr

Yarn Out: 91gr + 88gr + 1964gr = 2143gr

Balance:  1843 gr more OUT than in

Costs:  $7.90

Red Scarf #2 World AIDS Day

 I figured I might as well post scarf #2 right after scarf #1. 

This is trying to show the alternate rib cast on compared to the sewn cast off. Both techniques are in Montse Stanley's "Knitter's Handbook". This is a fantastic book. I had originally got it out from my library, but then I was able to find a copy at a thrift store, a LONG time ago, judging by the scribbles one of my kids did on the front. First published in Britain in 1986.

It's a very simple rib, one strand Bernat "Super Value" from the lot I bought off Marketplace a while ago, and one strand Patons "Astra" that was left over from custom Christmas stocking orders. I used 8mm needles, and 21 stitches. However, it's actually only about 4.25" wide. It feels wider. I was thinking I might need to steam block it, but the thought of doing that...

It was super squishy and cushy before I washed it. I just did it in with a load of clothes. I took it out of the dryer after 15 minutes, and it felt terrible.  I had kept it in the mesh bag, in the dryer, so I took a risk and took it out of the bag and threw it in. I was hoping that getting properly tumbled would help soften. And it did!  Back to being soft and squishy!  145gr.   

My red stash is getting very low. I went to two thrift shops, hoping to find some yarn or sweater to unravel. I did find a very soft red sweater at one that would be a good candidate. It was $6.99, so $7.90 with tax. I washed it, dried it in the machine, and unpicked the seams. 

I set up to unravel and wind into balls with my new electric winder. More on the winder saga later. I quickly found out that two of the pieces had been knit alternating rows from two balls. What a pain. So odd on a commercial sweater! The yarn broke quite a few times too. However, I now have 300gr of a super soft, slightly boucle yarn. 

In other news, I found out I had two YouTube channels under my TracyKM Designs name! One had no subscribers and 1 video. I deleted that one. The other one had 122 subscribers and a bunch of videos! One video, on how to fold the Baby Surprise Jacket, had over 14K views!! It even had comments from 8 years ago, that I didn't know about! 

I decided to resurrect that channel. A bit scary. I made a video, and I hope you'll go watch it, and maybe subscribe. https://www.youtube.com/@tracykmdesigns1684

Yarn In: 300gr

Yarn Out:  145gr + 1819gr = 1964gr

Balance:  1664 gr more OUT than in

Costs:  $7.90

Red Scarf #1 2026 World AIDS Day Charity

 I was procrastinating a bit on a couple projects, and also, my wrist has been a bit sore, so I decided it was time to work with a bit thicker yarn and make the first red scarf for the year. I was hoping to donate even more this year, but 1) my red yarn stash is low, and 2) I got obsessed with hats on the LK150 and the ribbed beanies. 

This is my "Mix it Up" version. I had a LOT of small balls of red yarn from previous scarves, and I think some were Patons "Astra" from a series of Christmas stockings that I made years ago when I did custom stockings. It's a simple double crochet, I believe it's 20DC, on a 5mm hook. 

Red is so hard to photograph! There's a lot of textures in this scarf, from very thin sections, to chunky, to the red eyelash stripes. 

One tip I have is to crochet over the old yarn tail when starting the new yarn. Not all the way to the end of it though. Then on the return yarn, crochet over it again. Then you meet the tails of the new yarn, and again, continue it along for an inch or so, then on the return, crochet over the rest. I try not to change yarns at the edges as I found last year that was making the edges a bit more bulky and untidy.

This scarf weighs in at 122gr.

Yarn In:  0gr

Yarn Out: 122gr + 1697gr = 1819gr

Balance:  1819gr more OUT than in

Costs:  $0

Black....For Once it Was Easy! Ribbed Beanie

 Many people hate working with black, especially as they get older. I'm no exception! However, I've been on this ribbed beanie kick, and put together two yarns from my stash. I have this "Mirage," in white, silver, black and dark grey (I think). It's not the most pleasant feeling stuff.  Feels like acrylic (it's only 16% acrylic, 84% polyester). It's a thick and thin, single ply. Supposed to mimic handspun, I guess, but the shininess gives it away. 

It was combined with an unknown standard black worsted (but not a thick worsted). 

Not sure what happened with this photo! 

You can see the texture of the Mirage. I was hoping the solid black would help the feel of the Mirage, while still allowing some texture to show.

I used 60sts again, 8mm needles. I like the fit better. I did run out of the black at about 9" and I didn't want to use a different unknown black. So I just did the decreases. This hat used 94gr.

Yarn In:  0gr

Yarn Out: 94gr + 1603gr = 1697gr

Balance:  1697gr more OUT than in

Costs:  $0