A Love Affair

Usually when my in-laws visit on Sunday afternoons, I crochet while talking to my mother-in-law.  Since I’m on a Hooking Hiatus, though, I was feeling fidgety yesterday.  I grabbed my seam ripper, scissors, and a sweater from my To Be Frogged pile and went to work.  I figured it was time to test my new skeiner/swift.  The results of one afternoon and evening’s work, with plenty of breaks for cooking, eating, blogging, and surfing:

J.Crew Sweater - 100% Wool - 11wpi

Dress Barn Sweater - Silk/Acrylic/Wool - 12wpi

Same yarn, different angle

Both sweaters unraveled in one afternoon and evening.  Wow!  (And I even got six good-as-new buttons from the turtleneck of the blue one.)  The skeiner is fabulous.  I need to glue a few of the joints, but other than that, it worked beautifully.  It took more time to find the right ends and unseam the sweaters than it actually did to unravel them into skeins.  With my old lap skeiner (a 2×4 with nails), it took hours to do what I can now do in less than ten minutes.  Wow, wow, wow!

I was so thrilled that I decided it was high time to name my new buddy.  I’ve noticed an affinity among craftsters to name their machines, from sewing machines to spinning wheels.  I like it.  But what to name my new indespensible tool?  Hmmm…it reminds me of a windmill.  It has no gender.  Commence with Googling.  (Have I ever mentioned how much I love the baby-naming process?  We’re done having kids, so maybe I should start naming everything in the house, just for fun…)  “Dutch unisex names.”  Schuyler: a Dutch surname that has been adapted as a unisex first name in English.  And “Schuyler the Skeiner” amuses me.  Sold.

Now that Schuyler’s in my life, I can see lots and lots of frogging ahead.  (Frogging: to rip apart a crocheted or knit item:  Rip-it, Rip-it, Rip-it.  I do so love a good/bad pun.)  What a fun, inexpensive way to build up a yarn stash.