Sunday, January 28, 2007




Knitting with a KitchenAid stand mixer:

Faced with winding 30 some skeins of Jamieson & Smith 2 ply jumper weight into center pull skeins, I decided to search the web for an easier method than a swift and a hand cranked ball winder. Not wanting to pay for an electric winder, DH and I figured out there had to be a way to attach a small motor to the ball winder. NOT! So what other small motors were in the house that allowed a circular wind motion? Why an electric mixer of course!!! Having had surgery for carpal tunnel once, I prefer to save the hand motions for knitting rather than winding.

Google search brought up these sites from knitters who already had the idea:
http://www.figandplum.com/archives/000365.html using a hand held mixer
http://geocities.com/mama_bear_007/ using a stand mixer

So out came the Kitchen Aid mixer with the dough hook. I found that cutting a 4" square of lightweight cardboard, taping it into a tube and slipping it over the dough hook worked perfectly. There were no empty cardboard cylinders in the house at the moment but I will save some paper towel cardboard. I think they would be even better than thinner cardboard tubes.
The first couple of skeins were a bit comical as they looked more like children's tops than balled yarn but what the heck. It saved a lot of hand winding. Kitchen Aid stand mixer run on motor speed 6 balled a skein of yarn in about 45 seconds.

Lesson learned - Google is your friend.

7 comments:

  1. Anne- That has to be one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time.
    I'm amazed it actually worked. I see you have the K5 mixer- I have the smaller one. Hmmmmmmm.

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  2. Anne, That is great! I would have never thought of using my kitchenaid for a ball winder! Have you been on any road trip lately?

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  3. Anonymous2:38 AM

    I did leave a comment yesterday but it didn't make it through. So I shall try again.

    I love the red kitchenaid. What an great idea. Necessity is the mother of invention. Ingenious!

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  4. Genius. Sheer genius.

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  5. That is just amazingly awesome

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  6. Anonymous1:46 PM

    absolutely LOVE this!!! hvvv to t
    ry

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  7. Anonymous10:29 PM

    You can also felt small projects (such as slippers or potholders) in your KitchenAid using the dough hook.

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