My Fishing Tackle

Really!

I have a new toy.

It's a line meter. As in fishing line meter. The package says that you use it to measure the depth to which you cast your bait so that you can cast to the same depth each time.

I'm not really too sure why that's important.

I have something else in mind.

As in, I have a pile of yarn on my desk. Some of it is still in those collapsed marshmallows that you get when you've knit most of a center pull ball. Some of it just used to be in one of those collapsed marshmallows and it now a tangled snarl.

Why is it there? Well, I confess, partially to hide the start of a shawl I started and don't like the shaping of. It's waiting to be frogged and restarted but I'm currently avoiding it (Fiesta's LaBoheme and a PIA to frog. Someday I'll be patient. I will! Quit snickering.)

Other than that, all those yarn puddles are waiting to be measured. You know how when you read a pattern it tells you how many yards of yarn you need? This stuff is the remains of FO's. I know how much I started with, now I just need to measure how much I have left, add a fudge factor, and I'll know what number to write in my patterns.

I don't like to measure yarn. The yarnstick method isn't all that accurate unless you take forever to do it and are super careful not to stretch the yarn. You also have to pay attention. You have to count. Now, frequent readers will know I seem to be challenged in the counting department. I have no confidence in my ability to keep track accurately.

I have done some measuring using my niddy-noddy. You wind the yarn around and around in V's, once again, carefully, without stretching. And count the number of wraps. It's supposed to be 1 yard per wrap. Except The Man Of The House and I made my niddy-noddy. It's not 36". It's more like 38". Or there abouts. Not a lot of difference, I guess. I could just consider it part of the fudge factor. But it bothers me. And it's an arm workout, so that would be kind of healthy and I don't really do healthy.

So, my new line meter. It clamps onto my desk and the yarn runs through it and it records how long it is. Quick and painless. Actually, fun. I'm easily amused.

The yarn being meaured in the picture is the yarn left from the self-dyed self-striping yarn socks recently finished. The meter shows 109 feet left. About 36 yards. Each round takes around 30" and 12 rounds made an inch, so...even though it looked pretty skimpy, I actually could have knit another 3 inches. I had plenty!

One problem, though. You're supposed to run your yarn through the meter and onto your ball winder. Which I don't have. Just a measured pile of yarn on the floor.

Oh, BTW, line meters cost $13. Yarn meters run $50-60.

Other fishing tackle I love:

It's a worm case! Yuck!

Look again. The inside cover has pockets that hold my stitch markers and the pockets have my circular needles. The pockets are really heavy plastic and you can buy extras as necessary. I think the whole set up was less than $20.

One day 'til Taos Wool Festival!