Yarn bowling... Strike!

We have all got that fear in our heads, You’re knitting in church, at a town hall meeting, at the office meeting or on the train and our ball of yarn falls out of our laps rolls down the aisle and stops right at whomever is talking’s feet. You turn beat red as you make your way up to the evil ball of yarn pick it up and slowly wishing the earth will open up and take you, make your way back to your seat. For a brief moment you consider maybe this isn’t the place to knit, and unless you are at Church (where you take it as a sign from God that this really isn’t the time despite your deadline), you say nah, and keep knitting. Now at home it is a whole different story. You are knitting in your home, because you don’t want to do your chores, and there goes the ball off the couch where you are sitting and rolls to the dirtiest corner in your living room, or through the dirt if you are outside. In that case you might think I might need to clean but I’d rather be knitting so after you pick up your ball and brush it off you keep knitting. If you have a cat or dog you might have to chase them down first to get the ball.

Have you experienced any of that? Yea it has happened to me a few times, though never at church. One of the other things that must have gone through your mind is there has got to be an easier way. 

Now Modern methods for winding balls of yarn have made this problem a bit less but some companies still sell their yarn in skeins that you must wind yourself, so those are usually the biggest culprits of this problem. Well believe it or not there are some solutions.

A hook version I found on Pintrest. Find in on my knitting gadgets board.

On the market there easy to find are yarn bowls, and sacks. One of the ladies in my NH knitting group has a plastic one that she can set on the table or hang around her neck that also holds her tools. I have a yarn sack I can loop through my hand and knit with when I am in public. I found it among my Grandma’s stuff. It has proven very handy with some of my smaller projects, such as socks and mittens. Then recently a friend of mine, who does pottery, traded with me a pair of mittens for a gorgeous and may I say ever so useful yarn bowl. I feel a little bad because every time I see her I thank her, because oh my god do I love it. Now it doesn't work if you are doing multiple colors but I am not panicking every second that my yarn is going to do it’s traveling act on to my dirty rug and under my coffee table or to the worst possible spot where I have to preform yoga to reach it. I think the only reason I am flexible is because I am forever getting things out of the most inconvenient places.

My new Yarn Bowl

Now to find time to knit.

Yarn bag

Got any .useful tools you think I should try out or find out about, let me know in the comments.