September Strawberry

Do you remember that merino that was calling my name? There really was only one way that that was going to end, and here it is:


50 grams ish of Strawberries and Cream handspun merino. The next step is to wind it into a centre-pull ball and then go for the plying but for some extraordinary reason H just didn't seem that keen on the idea of holding onto the spindle while I wound - who would have thought it?

Luckily for me, ingenuity is not an alien concept, nor is construction of anything out of plastic boxes, loo roll tubes and sellotape - as evidence I offer you (a) the niddy-noddy, and (b) the fact that my sister had a working lighthouse made out of a washing up bottle which my father made when we were small - you squeezed the sides to make it flash, it was very cool.

So, here is how you make your very own Lazy Husband (who was Kate anyway?):

First you need a plastic tub. This one has in its lifetime encountered both Cornish ice-cream and patchwork pieces so clearly yarn was the next logical step.

To that box, I sellotaped half a loo roll tube to each side

And my spindle slots in perfectly.



There are two tiny hitches with my otherwise perfect plan. Number 1 is that you have to keep a foot near the end of the spindle to stop it sliding too far and falling out and number 2 is that it spins a little too easily so sometimes it is best to let the yarn run through your fingers to stop it looping up on the ball winder.

Until it looks like this:


And with a 10p for size



All plied up it went all stripy and swirly



And now, I have real yarn - yippee





I have 135 metres of what I think is about 4ply and I'm longing to knit with it. This spinning malarky is getting serious. Run, run while you can.