I am in a pre-Christmas-knitting-frenzy to finish up (or even start - horrible me!) the last presents for my nearest and dearest... I guess that you all are in quite a similar situation!!!

So I started working on my sister's gift: a pair of quick and easy armwarmers, which thankfully don't need any intellectual activity at all and can be knitted up while working on the computer or while thinking about the next present that needs to be done....

Soooo... while I was working and minding other stuff, my centre-pulled yarn ball started to tangle and it dropped to the floor more than once and generally couldn't seize to annoye me - That's how I remembered a tip I had seen on pinterest some time ago...

... I went to the kitchen and found a nice sturdy, big enough bowl and a simple binder-clip and I made my own, perfectly functioning yarn-bowl:

I am absolutely loving it... it keeps the yarn in one place (don't choose a light bowl that might move around) and the yarn flows out smoothly without any problems. I took the binder-clip apart to put my yarn in the loops, since I thought about this DIY yarn-bowl after having already started the project - and it could not have been easier to set everything up!

In less than 2 minutes everything was done and my knitting resumed... only this time I had a very obedient yarn ball sitting in a nice looking bowl next to me!
Another plus is that whenever I wan't to put my WIP away I can just put it in the nice bowl and it looks much better than just thrown in a corner, as was my former "method" of organisation!

Here you can find the original post that was linked to pinterest, where I had read about this great idea! And for the curious amongst you: the yarn is "Cool Wool Big Melange" from Lana Grossa in the colourway 617 & the pattern is the free SoftCables I published in November. 

I published a free pattern for a pair of armwarmers on ravelry - just in time for the christmas-knitting frenzy (as a small gift from me to you guys)!

These feature a big mirrored cable, with crisp and neat looking braids thanks to the hidden purl stitch in-between them and the 1x1 ribbing right next to the cables. The rest of the armwarmers is worked in simple Stockinette stitch. 

Any smooth and highly twisted yarn is suitable for showing off the cables. In this sample 100% merino was used, which is an excellent choice for textured patterns. 
And they are made out of worsted weight yarn, which makes for a speedy knit!

This pattern uses a tubular cast on and bind off for a very neat looking finishing that has also extreme stretch (my absolute favorite for accessories). But if you don't feel up to work this technique, you can exchange this CO or BO with any other method of your choice, just make sure that it is very stretchy! 

And while I was taking the pictures for the pattern it started to snow - for the first time this winter, very softly and silently the snowflakes wanted to make their presence in my photos...

You can download this pattern for free either on this site here, or directly on ravelry.