Swifts and Yarn Winders

Kris Kringle was very kind to me this past Christmas.
My love of yarn-y things was indulged and I received some wished-for yarn-y equipment

I can't pick a favourite part of my present, because it was all awesome.

But I do love my Swift, and my Yarn Winder, and some people have been asking about them, so here goes...

As a child, I remember helping mum wind yarn into skeins to be washed, then from skeins into balls again.

It involved holding the yarn stretched between my hands for as long as it took her to wind up the ball.

Recently when I have purchased gloriously beautiful skeins of hand-dyed yarns, I've been revisiting my childhood skein-winding experiences.

However, my children get bored before I've had a chance to wind the yarn, so I have been using upside-down chairs or my knees (good excuse to sit and relax).

Those days are now over and my kids are interested in helping again!  Playing with spinny things is way more fun than just holding some wool and staying still.

In fact, my daughter is more proficient at using the Swift & Yarn Winder than I am.  I'm very grateful to her aunt for getting her into training quickly!

Here's some pictures of the Swift, the Ball Winder , and the final pretty cake of yarn.  yes, really, it's called a cake.

The Swift opens like an umbrella to the right size for the skein of Yarn.  It holds the yarn securely and spins freely to allow the winder to pull the yarn evenly onto the cake.

The winder in action - you turn the handle at the bottom to turn the spindle which the ball is on. The metal loop keeps the tension even.

Yarn is wound!

And a video of my dude winding the yarn onto the winder so you can see how it works. I generally run the winder a bit faster than that, but hey, he's only little.  And the yarn was 'sticking' a bit.