it's all about the accessories

Of course the best thing about a hobby or pastime is all of the accessories. My very favourite knitting accessory is my Royal ball winder. This was given to me as a birthday gift by, would you believe it, my workmates at the time - it is truly one of the best gifts that I have ever received.

My maternal grandmother was a great craftswoman and she had a ball winder in the bungalow that she used as her craft room. As a child I loved to wind all the leftover balls of wool - once I had finished what was available I would just start again on the ones that I had already wound. Nowadays, I wind all of my skeins/balls/hanks of yarn - they really do take up less space (which just means that there is room for more).

I have long been curious about Euroflax linen yarn which gets mentioned quite a bit on US blogs (like here) and features in a knitted skirt pattern in Knit 2 Together. It's not available (to my knowledge) in Australia but with the help of my trusty Royal ball winder I turned a women's linen knit that I bought at the op shop into four balls of linen yarn within minutes. Now I'll just have to choose something to make - perhaps the ballerina top from Debbie Bliss' Quick Baby Knits for baby bear. That's it there on the cover. Linen really does have lovely drape, I think that they are well suited.