Apparently Santa objected to my rather bojankity lazy kate solution. And here I thought I was innovating!
A lazy kate is simply a device that holds your bobbins while you ply. It just has to let them rotate freely and smoothly. My cardboard box and knitting needles lazy kate did that, and cost exactly $0. But it felt weird to carefully pack up a ragged cardboard box and cart it around to different craft shows. Enter my even more lightweight solution!
Two knitting needles and two knees! It’s super effective! In a craft that requires a dozen hand-carved, expensive tools, I avoided purchasing one more. I don’t need no stinking, highly efficient, easier-to-use lazy kate. No way, no how.
Santa got me one anyway. This is my new Schacht lazy kate. It is a little awesome. Unlike my, ahem, “creative” solutions, it has a tension string. Like the Scotch brake on my spinning wheel, it runs across a whorl on the bobbins and keeps them from spinning wildly and tangling up the singles. It also keeps the tension on both singles even.
I’m grateful to Santa for making my life easier. I have to admit, though, like most things, I’m glad I did it the hard way first. I developed a very fluid plying style because yanking on the singles would spin the bobbins too fast and create a giant knot. I’m also good at controlling the tension on the singles using only my hands. And that’s totally why I never bought one…not because I’m cheap. *chirp chirp*
Cliff House Alpacas 
Ha ha I have exactly the same one! and I also went through exactly the same cardboard box thingy too. My hubbie made one for me, then later on bought me the proper one. However, on the front of my Ashford Traveller, there is a built-in lazy katy so I don’t even need anything else. I had to giggle when you said the bit about the giant knot. I’ve had that experience too of course only I thought it was only me that had the problem!
My old wheel, the little Kromski that could, had a built in lazy kate (though no tension string). Relative to my fancy-smancy Schacht, that was a simple little wheel, but it had everything I needed.
Nothing worse than a knot of highly energized singles, eh?
You are so clever AND talented!
Bah! Flattery will get you everywhere 🙂