There’s been some buzz about magic balls on some of the pod casts I watch and listen to lately. Our Simply Notable Ravelry Group even got excited enough about this to create a “Ball of Wonder” Swap where members made up magic balls from their own stash and sent them to one another!
I’ve always thought of magic balls as balls of yarn wound up with little prizes inside that fall out as you knit. But this is a different idea – joining scraps of the same weight but differing colors all together and winding it up into one continuous ball of yarn to knit a scrappy project with! So fun!
Yarns are pieced together with a Russian Join, which is quite easy to do. You simply thread your yarn onto a smallish yarn needle, then going back about 3 inches from the end, pull the needle through the core of the yarn, leaving a loop that you can thread your joining side to by doing the same thing. When they’re both in place, pull the ends tight to close the loops and secure the join. Then cut the extra pieces off. Once done, it’s difficult to even see the join!
It’s such a feeling of accomplishment to transform all those little balls of leftovers slowly into a full cake ready to knit.
and if you want to wind some little goodie up in the middle for a surprise, no knitter I know would object.
Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, knitters!
Love the idea of a little prezzie inside! Stitch markers, a tapestry needle, a paper fortune or sticker! Oooo, must try!
Sheila
http://sheilazachariae.blogspot.com/2014/03/crocodile-stitch-scarf.html
And us knitters and crocheters just loooooove little gifties, don’t we, Sheila? 🙂 Such fun!
I’m so glad you posted this because I’ve been wondering how people made these. I have one question, though: would it be too gauche to make it on a nostepinne instead of a mechanical ball winder? I don’t have the mechanical kind because I like the meditative quality of winding on a stick. 🙂
I think that’s the most awesome way to make it, Jan! I only very recently learned to wind a center pull ball on a nostepinne, at a class I took on our recent trip to Stitches West. If I had known how meditative and wonderful this process was before, I wouldn’t own a mechanical ball winder either! 🙂 I love it!!! I have to thank the teacher I had, Laura Farson, for teaching me this easy and wondrous way to wind up a center pull ball. (I loved it so much that both I AND Mom, Sr. bought a nostepinne at the Stitches Marketplace before we left, then spent our evenings in the hotel room practicing. 😀
Thanks very much the reply. I think I’ll try it. I’m glad to hear that you’ve found using a nostepine relaxing too. 🙂