yesterday i received the ball winder by knitpicks in the mail and was thrilled to be able to finally deal with my unruly, tangled yarn stash. i remember spending a lot of time thinking about whether it was a good choice or not, it cost me around $20 for it, and i've seen most other winders for up to twice the price--maybe i'd be getting my money's worth to order the cheapest one i've seen? anyway, after much thought i decided to just get it and decide. after about two hours of turning the little crank of this thing and feeding all of my yarn, i was really happy to see the results. i went from an overflowing shelf stuffed with random wads of yarn that wouldn't stop rolling out and onto the floor[i wish i took the time to shoot a before shot but i was too excited to use it as soon as i saw it on my doorstep!] to this beautiful sight--

what you see here is essentially this plus another half dozen or so of newly stashed skeins of yarn, in the form of these nice little neatly stacked little cakes. feels good to make room! i don't know if more expensive models would have done any better but i'm already more than happy with what this little ball winder's done for me. paired with this yardage counter i bought a bit back, i made a nice and tidy tally of just how many yards i've got in there [7272 !]

i'm sure it'll help me along with picking projects to use this lovely stuff up. i want to argue that the attractive presentation of these wound balls have made it easier to put lovely color combinations as well, i see a lot more opportunity in my yarn stash than before.

if you want to organize your stash, free up some room, or even count up how many yards you have left of something to better know how to use a skein, i highly recommend this little thing for you, it's done me very well so far !

in other news, i've been stashbusting with some fun little hairclip projects that have been on my mind for a while. there's something therapeutical about the making of these bows, not sure how i can explain it, but what i know for sure is that there will be more on the way. i really like how the ones so far have turned out, and hopefully someone will too.

these sets of three are currently for sale on my etsy--have a look !