Wound and wound we go!

So, today I tried my hand at something that I thought was insane.

A friend of mine told me she bought a nostepinne (prompting a "what?"), which is a really cool thing for those of us who can't afford to / don't want to buy a ball winder.  Admittedly, I don't really want to buy a nostepinne either;  for one, because I'm only guessing when I pronounce it, and of course, because I have lofty dreams of owning a ball-winder at some point.

So, I used a toilet paper roll.

I started with a gorgeous ball of Cascade Yarns 75% merino superwash, 25% nylon sock yarn.  Like so:

I loves me this yarn.  <3
This skein should be black though?

Then I spent a couple hours winding and untangling and generally fighting with the yarn - I'm assuming this will get easier with practice - and ended up with something that I'm amazed at, but I'm sure is really just an ugly-duckling hand-wound center-pull ball of yarn.  I think it's pretty awesome though!  Socks !  I'm ready for you!  (Just got to free up my sock needles.)

So, I thought this yarn was burgundy.
Looks kind of more purple, eh?

VOILA!  I'm quite proud.  :)  Go go toilet paper roll!