Green-eyed April 26, 2007
I’m seeing green. Hm. That doesn’t sound quite right. It’s true, though. Here’s the evidence.
While digging through the stash a week or two back, I found this green lace weight yarn. Two huge hanks of it. I don’t remember buying it. Where’d I get it? What’s it made of? I don’t know. No idea. The answers are lost in the fog of my peri-menopausal memory. It’s pretty, though. And there’s a lot of it. This hank weighs in at a hair under three-quarters of a pound. I got out the magnifying glass—my memory isn’t the only thing that’s failing—and took a close look. It appears to be some sort of braid, as opposed to a twist. 
My glass isn’t strong enough for me to get a real good look at it. It is soft, though, and has a nice sheen. Hm. There are possibilities here.
I dug out the ball winder and swift, and got to work. I wound, and wound, and wound, and wound. The ball got so big that I had to pull the metal guide away from it as I got near the end of the hank, so that things will still spin. 
The completed ball is so big that it’s pushing against the guide.
There’s a slight problem, though. I can’t get the yarn off of the winder. I’ve pulled, tugged, wheedled; I tried swearing; I took the thing off the bar, held it with my feet, pulled, tugged, swore some more. Nope. It’s stuck. Pfui.
I really don’t want to have to knit from the ball winder. Any ideas what I can do to get it off?
Meanwhile, I blocked my latest swatch for the Barbara Walker Treasury Project. You can see my swatch here.
  
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Yes, I ran into problems with my swatch, too. I dropped a stitch. Luckily, I saw it before it went too far. And I had this wonderful little do-dad with a lobster claw on the end to hold the stitch with until I got to a point where it would be easy to fix. Thank you, Robin! As you can see, I had the a photographic assistant this morning when I was trying to take pictures of the swatch for the Project’s blog.
~Kristie April 26
If I get it off the ball winder for you, can I have the yarn? I LOVE LOVE LOVE that yarn! Is your stash really that big that you can’t remember what yarn you do and do not have? I’m so jealous, I’m seeing green!
So, for my real answer. Normally when I wind laceweight yarn, I make a center “cone” out of cardstock and slide it over the ball winders center cone. I then tape the cardstock to the ball winders core piece by placing a piece of tape from one side of the cardstock over the center section of the ballwinder and down over the other side of the cardstock. I tape down the beginning end of the lace yarn and then start winding. When you’re done, all you have to do is snip the tape off the top of the center ball winder section and it usually slides off easily. Clear as mud?
Since you didn’t do that, I would “unwind” the yarn back onto the swift and then rewind it. I know that’s not what you want to hear, but it may be your only solution.
By the way, that is *so* Ricki to get in your photo. Made me laugh!
everythingearin April 26
I use the cardstock trick too. It just makes things easier and you can get your center pull every time. I hope it comes off soon because unwinding and rewinding sounds darn sucky to me! I too have my little helpers - they always want to come see what mama is paying attention to.
Robin April 26
Well, first of all, “You’re welcome”. I love that pattern, both ways, yours and BW’s. Aren’t kitties just the most helpful beings ever? (I find it odd that most knitters have cats, mine do not bother my yarn, ever, pogo likes to lay in my lap when I’m knitting, when something is blocking they want to lay on it, but do not ever mess with the ball, looks like Rikki is the same way) I love that green yarn. Whatcha’ gonna knit up now?