A Merry Belated Christmas to Me

Yeah - two posts in the same month! I had a wonderful Christmas this year, with some wonderful knitterly gifts, such as Vogue Knitting The Ultimate Sock Book, Cat Borhdi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters, and Elizabeth Zimmerman's The Opinionated Knitter. I also got some Christmas cash. Since the majority of my stash is in hanks and all the yarn that I spin goes into hanks, I decided it was time to splurge for an umbrella swift. Actually I decided this when I was sitting on the floor with my current homemade swift that must sit on a large table or the floor (and since I don't have any large tables in my office where all the knitting supplies are, it ends up being on the floor). It would be a great little swift if I only wound up a couple hanks of yarn a year. However, I find myself winding a lot of yarn to feed my knitting habit! As I was saying, I was sitting on the floor winding yarn, actually not winding yarn because I was untangling yarn. Tangles that had formed when the swift sort of came apart on me. So there I was on the floor, frustrated again at the little homemade swift (this has been a repeat performance over the past several months), when it dawned on me that an umbrella swift really would make things easier. It wouldn't come apart and I wouldn't have to sit on the floor and stretch to reach the top of the bookshelf where the ball winder is located to wind yarn. I was so happy to have found such a perfect use for my Christmas cash. I ordered the large KSM wooden umbrella swift from Jimmy Beans Wool shortly after Christas, and it finally arrived today! Here's a picture of my new beauty in its new home and already ready for action.