Kay's Korner - A Knitters Notes

Introducing Rare Purls New Ball Winder!

Oops! Wrong photo!

Anyone coming by Rare Purls in 2012 has seen the new addition to our staff, my beloved husband, Dr. Bill Mather. Although Bill has always helped us with events, shipping orders, and other support tasks, he is now a full time fixture at our Duluth, Ga. shop and is quickly learning about such knitterly terms as "gauge","DK", "wips" and the wonders of Ravelry. From living with me for over 30 years, he already knows quite a bit about knitters and has even held his share of hanks in the winding ceremony. I am loving his approach to bettering the shop, which always seem to include some form of tool.

Just last week, I walked into the back room and found Bill bent over the table. I figured he was working on our ailing winder, but to my surprise, he was installing an awesome new ball winder! When winding yarn this past month, Bill had noticed that my little Royal ball winder was grunting and groaning from the work load. Royal makes a superb little winder, especially for the price, but it is meant as a personal tool, not for commercial use where it keeps turning hours every day. All those 400+ yard hanks of sock and lace weight yarns had our little winder on its last leg.

Royal yarn winder

So you can imagine my delight when Bill surprised me with a new, jumbo, more efficient, heavy duty ball winder. It is made by U-nitt and will wind much larger balls, up to 10 oz. hanks! The U-Nitt winder utilizes a gear system, so one turn of the crank turns the cylinder with the new ball approx. 4 times, rather than the 1:1 ratio of our previous winder. So much less effort and no more having to wind awesome huge hanks into two separate balls! Whoo hoo!

Yes, Bill has saved us a bunch of time and effort and I suspect he has a few other tricks up his sleeve for the fixtures at Rare Purls. That I now have more time to devote to knitting and teaching has made me a very happy girl. I am loving working with my hubby again! Also, now Luke has time to get back to his computer repair/networking jobs, although he remains active in the business as owner/president of Rare Purls, LLC.

So if you are in the Atlanta area, please be sure to stop by Rare Purls. Check out all the gorgeous yarns, delightful patterns, and our new yarn winders. You will notice that one of them is actually quite charming

On Kay's Needles -
I have been knitting up a cool streak! Luke is wearing new socks on his size 13s, knit in Heritage 150 Paints. I wish you could all feel just how warm and cozy those socks knit up. Also finished is the cowl in SMC Select Extra Fine Merino Color. The splashes of color are all in the yarn. The welt pattern is super easy and with only 3 rows of shaping, the knitting is easy, too. More about the cowl and this new DK weight merino yarn in my next post.

Cowl in SMC Select Extra fine Merino Color

And check out Dan's Honeymoon Hiker Hat knit in Cascade Sierra, a comfortable blend of cotton and wool. Dan in an active guy and I wanted him to have a hat to keep his noggin warm on those marathon bicycle rides, he so enjoys. This is the sample knit for the 20sts./4" gauge in the upcoming pattern.

Daniel in his new hat

Happy knitting!
Kay Mather

Copyright - Feb. 2012