In other news, guess who went for a walk around the yard this weekend?
Why, yes, that is a rabbit harness/leash.
And that, my friends, is one cute bunny.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Pulling from the center
Okay, let me 'fess up: I hardly ever pull from the center with center-pull skeins of yarn. I know this is contrary to the conventional wisdom (pull from the center and your ball won't roll around!) but every time I do, I end up with a tangled mess. The outer part of the skein collapses into the empty center and I spend half an hour trying to detangle it. Feh. This just happened to me, and I swear, I swear, I am never pulling from the center again. So there.
In other news, guess who went for a walk around the yard this weekend?
Why, yes, that is a rabbit harness/leash.
And that, my friends, is one cute bunny.
In other news, guess who went for a walk around the yard this weekend?
Why, yes, that is a rabbit harness/leash.
And that, my friends, is one cute bunny.
I'm with you on working from the outside in. I had someone tell me that on patterned yarns you have to start in the middle to make the socks match. They couldn't understand that if a ball of yarn is 300 yds. long, its that long whether you start from the outside or the inside. Huh.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is a cute bunny. And I really like the bunny harness. Have you got a patent on that yet?
I'll work either from the inside or the outside. If I have immediate problems pulling from the inside, then the choice is obvious. If you have a snarled mess, sometimes shaking it helps to loosen it up. And sometimes you just have to pick at it.
ReplyDeleteHow did you leash-train Charcoal? Or is there no training for bunnies? That rabbit is destined for Playbunny magazine.
I'm glad I'm not the only one whose center pulls make a mess ...
ReplyDeleteOh! A cute picture of Charcoal - I LOVE it! Does he mind the harness?
I sometimes run into that problem with center pulls, but make sure you pull the center through the bottom after you wind it (push it through the middle when you take it off the winder) - I havent' had any problems since I started doing that.
ReplyDeleteBunny harness! Love it!!!
Delurking to say...thank god someone else said it!!! I use a ball winder for my yarn but NEVER pull from the center. I thought perhaps it was just me...all of my balls would collapse. Could I have been knitting wrong? Pulling wrong? Well, thanks to you I won't worry my pretty little head one second longer! LOL
ReplyDeleteI prefer pulling from the center, though I've been known to work from the outside if I couldn't find the center end. I figure having to shake loose an occasional little tangle at the tail end (rarely an issue, that I've noticed) still takes me less time than chasing the damn ball all over the place and less energy than coming up with a surefire method for keeping said damn ball from rolling.
ReplyDeleteDifferent strokes, I guess.
Funny, after knitting for umpteen years, I too decided this spring that I would never again pull from the center of a ball. This holds for balls I've wound on my winder at home, and for skeins I buy that are purported to be center-pull. Who needs all that yarn vomit to deal with?
ReplyDeleteCharcoal keeps staring at me. Make him stop.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right! I am currently (grumble, grumble) attempting to untangle a skein of Handmaiden Sea Silk of all things that I wound into a center pull ball. I swear if the stuff wasn't so expensive, I'd cut it.
ReplyDeleteSo where did you get cute bunny who sheds the fiber of love? Whose fiber made sweater girls and therefore untold romantic liasons? I want to add two or three to the farm but don't know where to get them. Can you clue me in? Thanks.
Whew. Franklin said it first. No offense, malutka, but Charcoal's eye is a bit off-putting.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like those horrid googly eyes people buy in the horrid big box craft stores to make horrid "stuffies".
Tell him to look at the flowers, please.
Oh! You cut me to the quick! It's not his fault his eyes are spaced out on opposite sides of his head. And it's not like they are those creepy-ass pink ones. Try focusing on his little furry pantaloons, or his ruff or something.
ReplyDeleteHe is a Lionhead, rather than an Angora, though, so I'm not sure that he produces enough combings to spin with.
Oh yeah, Franklin and Kath are big HATERS.
ReplyDeleteI work from the outside, too...yet I still call it a center pull ball. I must think of a new name.
ReplyDelete(PS I like creepy stares from bunnies)
I pull from both depending on the type of yarn and project. Also, I love all bunners, especially the big red-eyed whites. Nobody realizes how smart and funny they are. :( Charcoal must have the sweetest disposition to put up with a harness. Mine run like mad when I have the leash/harness and say, "Let's get your shirt on."
ReplyDeleteBunny hugs!
=:8
Delurking just to say that I too am glad to know that there are others out there who hate the center pull cakes of yarn. All this time I thought I was doing something wrong. Of course I didn't just ask someone because I didn't want to look stupid. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeletePaige
I always knit from the outside from the ball never from the center.
ReplyDeleteI think Charcoal looks cute, hope he wasn't offended by the comments ;-)
Groeten van het konijn.
Charcoal totally belongs on cute overload!!!!
ReplyDeleteGod..seriously..i could just smoosh my face into him all day long.
and on a side note...my yarn is AMAZING!!! Carol, I can't even explain your greatness with color into words!
Too cute! I always pull from the outside but I heard something somewhere that it depends on the type of yarn. I thought wool was supposed to be used from the outside and cotton from the inside? Po-TA-to, Po-tah-to
ReplyDeleteAponia is a woman of great taste and discernment. ;)
ReplyDeleteI always end up with a big mess no matter how I pull it. But I think that's just me.
ReplyDeleteI want a bunny. But we're going to get a cat and a dog this year. Can bunnies live with cats and dogs?
I think center-pull balls work best if you're using wool, and/or if you are able to let the ball sit in one place and collapse. At least, I've never had any trouble with them, except when I was carrying the ball around a lot while traveling, and one memorable occasion when I was trying to knit a two-stranded scarf in the dark at the theatre. I tend to like them because I sit in one place like a lump and because my house is filled with dust bunnies - yarn roaming free is a bad idea.
ReplyDeleteI think in No Sheep For You the author talks about how non-wool yarns don't play nicely with center-pull balls.
I have a problem with tangling. A serious problem. As in a my-Jewish-husband-doesn't-let-me-touch-the-Christmas-lights problem. You should see the tangles I have created. Center-pull, prewound ball, it doesn't matter. Perhaps I shouldn't have chosen this craft...
ReplyDeleteSeconding the "how did you get him on a leash?" thing. My rabbit went berserk when I tried the neck leash and he had it almost chewed off by the time we caught him (sprinting around the living room the second we put it on).
ReplyDeleteI tried once to work from the center, big tangly mess. Now I always work from the outside in.
ReplyDeleteVery cute bunny!
I used to have a leash/harness for my cat. She disapproved. We no longer speak of it.
ReplyDeleteOh damn, that's the cutest thing I've seen all week.
ReplyDeleteI've had yarn blobs from wool, cotton, silk, whathaveyou. And I'm not talking about my wound balls, it's the commercial ones that make the biggest messes.
ReplyDeleteWhen I use a fiber that has no loft, that has a high twist and no grab, I never pull from the center of my wound ball because it will collapse much sooner than a loftier yarn. Silk, rayon, anything slinky, sleazy or otherwise slippery will collapse into a Gordian knot. Fast.
Does the rabbit harness really work for you? I tried it several years ago on my pet rabbit -- he HATED it.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful bunny you have!
Aaiiyaah! Three days and the scary bunny is still here!
ReplyDeleteI am getting afraid to open this page...
At least you can get a harness on him! I attempted to get the same type of harness on my bunny Spooky and, well, she lived up to her name and ran around the house with a half-fastened harness around her middle.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to be yet another bunny owner who says their bunnies hated the leash. Little girl's no longer with me, but both her and the boy hate those things and try desperately to wiggle out of them. And when I took boy outside, he just looked really nervous the whole time, like some giant predator bird might swoop out of the sky and eat him (not an impossible thing, after all). So your Charcoal must be of the purest sweetest disposition ever. And he is a super cutie.
ReplyDelete