Knit-Knacks: Yarn Ball Winder

Being a knitter I often find myself surrounded by a mountain of unsorted and un-stored yarn!  And I've recently taken it upon myself to remedy this AVALANCHE-OF-EPIC-PROPORTIONS problem before I'm buried alive and someone has to use a trained dog to ferret me out.  *random side note* Just look at my puppy!

Sorry I couldn't resist! :D

Anyways, I've found that I absolutely hate yarn the way it comes...whether that be in hanks, shanks, skeins, or queens (obviously going for a rhyme...and failing).  And then it donned on me...I should get one of the local yarn marts to wind my yarn for me.  Unfortunately for me, even though I offered to pay them, they would not wind yarn that was not purchased from their stores.  And I respect their decision to have such a policy, but it totally screws me!  

After a few days of sulking in my tangled yarn existence, I decided to get out of my wool prison and just buy a yarn ball winder of my very own.  That way, I could ball the yarn I buy online myself, and also the yarn I buy from my local suppliers (since I normally have to make a quick run during my lunch...I often don't have time to wait for them to ball it for me).  

So after perusing eBay for an hour or so, I finally purchased my very own yarn ball winder!

And it's RED too! My favorite color!

Needless to say, after I received this bad boy in the mail, I've been getting ballsy!  After balling all of my yarn at home, I even took it to work and balled almost our entire yarn stash for our Craft Cafe program.  I think I might have a problem...especially since now I just really want to buy yarn to ball it...not because I need it :D.  

I'm glad I bought it; however, I think that it is just going to exacerbate my yarn addiction to epic proportions.  So now instead of being buried alive by a messy, tangled mountain of yarn...I will be buried by a neat, color-coded mountain of precariously stacked yarn balls.  Ah! Progress!