If you follow me on Instagram, then you know that I’ve embarked on the #craftspacechallenge hosted by Dear Ewe , which they are hosting on IG. It’s a very time consuming process for me, because I am blessed enough to have an entire bedroom for my crafting fun – that’s not the challenge on it’s own… We’ve recently tripled the number of people staying at my house (hehehe no, not a bunch of weirdos – just some of our adult kids and wee little grand babies are staying here temporarily) and that means that we’ve had to move A TON of things around in the house to make room for everyone. I’ve had to consolidate my online ESL teaching classroom with my craft room, and it’s a little cramped in there. Add in the fact that I have a weaving look and a spinning wheel that I have to figure out where to store. Anyhow – all that to say that I’ve got a mountain to climb here, and I have to summit in order to regain some of my sanity.

Part of the process includes reevaluating, organizing, and purging my yarn stash. My instinct is to keep it all, keep it ALL – KEEP IT ALLLLLL (My precious – it needs us!) But it’s just not practical. And I’ve got yarn that doesn’t make me happy and is taking up very valuable real estate. So I’ve been going through it all and only keeping what I know I will use – scraps included.

I have gotten rid of all the little tiny leftover balls and WIPs (works in progress) that I have been saving for a rainy day. I have gotten rid of the yarn I bought because “hey check out this freaky yarn!”. And I am already started to feel my head clearing just a bit.

Not all the “excess” is getting kicked to the curb though. There are some leftovers of certain yarns (mainly my Lion Brand Mandala leftovers) that I just cannot part with. So I decided to combine and recake them, and I broke out my trusty yarn winder to get started on all these leftovers of the Genie colorway.

I started winding… and winding… and winding, and then I blinked and the dang winder was full. And I didn’t even get through one of the blobs! I researched a large/jumbo winder, and while they do exist, they come with a hefty price tag. So I set about trying to jimmy rig and adapt mine to bake a larger cake.

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I traced a CD onto some chipboard, cut it out, and taped it onto the base – hoping this would allow for more yarn to be wound.

Nope.

I neglected to consider that the shaft would also need to be taller. So I got a couple of repurposed toilet paper rolls and tried to tape them to the chipboard base. I finally trimmed enough excess that it turned smoothly. About halfway through, I realized this still would not even be CLOSE to enough.

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Back to the drawing board. And Pinterest. And Google.

I found a tutorial on Lion Brand’s website that said to wind the yarn around a knitting needle, so I decided to give winding by hand a try.

But I tell ya – I could not get traction on this very skinny metal needle. So I kept going back to the chipboard and the frustration of the winder not complying with my efforts to turn it into something it’s not. Then I had an epiphany – maybe I chose the wrong needle!

So I went back and grabbed my vampire apocalypse tool – my big wooden size 35 needle! And that worked like a charm! After awhile, my hands were struggling to wind about 2 cakes worth of scraps onto the same ball, but I did it!

I came. I wound. I conquered!

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I have a couple more cake scraps to wind, and although it works, I’m just not as enthusiastic as I was the first go-round. That jumbo yarn winder is looking so much more attractive right now 🙂 I’m definitely going to have to put one on my wish list!

What is your favorite way to re-cake, re-skein, or rewind scraps?

Happy crafting!

XOXO – Shelley