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:

Lorraine said...

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.

Sheila said...

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?

Anonymous said...

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!

Jen said...

Genius. Sheer genius.

Unknown said...

That is just amazingly awesome

Anonymous said...

absolutely LOVE this!!! hvvv to t
ry

Anonymous said...

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