Sunday, June 14, 2009

meet my new buddy

In my effort to get ready for the Sock Summit, I was taking advantage of the beautiful weather today and did figure 8 ties around some skeins. I will be bringing this particular wool in the undyed stage, but wanted it nice and pre-washed.

Usually I sort of wring the skeins out by hand, hang them on the drying rack, and hope for the best and a really nice sunny afternoon. Still, it would take days sometimes for the yarn to dry, or require a fan. It was starting to drive me a little nuts in the face of about 1000 hanks I still have to do.



Then my friend Kay had the absolute best idea the other day and told me about this little fellow.


Hehe can you guess?







A spin dryer. Believe it or not, when I was a little kid we still had one of those in the laundry room in the basement, and I was "allowed" to transfer the laundry from the washer (which did not spin) over to the "spinner". You have to load it just right so as to have a balanced load, close the lid, and turn it on. All it does is spin with its amazing centrifugal force.
I can put about 20 4 oz skeins in it, spin them out for about 3 minutes, and have damp hanks.


See them on the rack? Look Ma, no drips! I LOVE my new gadget.
Oh and in case you're wondering why on earth I don't use my washer: we have a high efficiency front loader, and I can't spin my yarn out in it.


This rack full took exactly one of my daughter's soccer games to dry.

7 comments:

  1. Hi Karin~ ~ ~Looks lke you are going to need some more of those drying racks too. Wishing you luck and lots of energy to get it all done.
    ~ ~Ahrisha~ ~ From KnitTalk

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  2. LOL, the first picture reminded me of a diaper pail! :)

    I was just at the sheep and wool gathering at Thacher Park this weekend, bought a skein of your lovely yarn! Thank you for your work!

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  3. Ok..how cool is that? You can charge a usage fee if we all start clamoring to "borrow" after washing handknits and such as I, too, have a front loader. It spins, but not as much as that.

    He he.

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  4. Cool! And Karin--my merino/nylon in Wine from you came today. It is the softest merino/nylon I have come across, and the colorway is absolutely gorgeous. I can't wait to play with it! Thank you so much!

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  5. It kind of reminds me of a ride at a theme park near me! I bet it works great.

    Looking forward to seeing your yarn up for sale online! Hope it is all going well :)

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  6. How cool! It reminds me of the machine that spins your bathing suit dry at the gym/pool. Nifty.

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