| Archive for the dropped spindle An online meeting place for spinners, weavers, dyers and felters. |
| ClaireUK |
A question about yarn swiftsDh is making me a wooden yarn swift and I just wondered - what do other people do about winding their skeins into balls?So many yarns come in skeins now that it does seem a problem. Does everyone have a helpful partner or is there a way without going to the trouble of making a swift? Claire UK |
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| natalie |
Funny you should say that!
I was about to go on a hunt for one. I have a teenager who helps out, he's much better at it than my husband. 
I was thinking of a swift to reskein my handpainted yarns for sale, they look so much prettier. I was wondering about ball winding them, but so many premium yarns now are skeined, I don't want them to look "less" by being in a ball. Sally found this for me when I was thinking about a ball winder a few weeks back. http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=21252.0 n |
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| ClaireUK |
I got a ball winder with my knitting machine so I use that, but need something to hold the skeins while i unwind them.
Small son recently won the regional heat of the K'nex young engineer challenge so I am going to set him a challenge for this 
Claire UK |
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| hellomango |
I just use the back of my son's small Ikea chair. It is the perfect width for sticking the skein onto for winding with my ball winder! Either that or I persuade whoever is around to sit and hold it for me. | ||
| sally |
Gareth made me one modelled on a historic example, its here
http://forum.downsizer.net/viewtopic.php?t=6994&highlight=winder and I love it to pieces 
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| DianeM |
I got my dad to make me a swift for my birthday: Mr Swifty.
It's brilliant! I have a pretty obliging DH but using the swift is so much faster (and he's not always here), I definitely recommend it. |
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| natalie |
Oooh sally I love it.
How big is the skein? natalie |
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| sally |
probably just over 4 foot, I'll wave a tape measure at it next time I pass it 
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| fibrespace |
I use my kids IKEA chairs turned upside down, (using 4 legs). Much easier than DH who can become easily distracted. I just bought 2 knitting machines at a car boot, and there was a ball winder with them, quite a bargain for £25!! beth |
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| hellomango |
Heh heh, Ikea chairs are clearly the way forward! | ||
| natalie |
Would it be possible to have one swift to put the skein on, and a second with some kind of winding handle, so that I could put the dyed skein, which is often quite unven and untidy looking, on the first swift and reskein it to make it look pretty on the second, so that I wouldn't have to use the niddy noddy. A bit like an old reel to reel tape recorder. I don't know if the handle could go in one of the peg holes? the second one would have to have sufficient welly (or the first would need to be very free running) to pull the yarn off the first one.
Just a thought. n |
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| sally |
Thats what I do, I have an expanding one to put the dyed skein on and my windmill one to turn it into a skein for sale. Works fine as long as you don't go to fast
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| julie1 |
Hi claire,
I have a gadget which an elderly aunt gave me many years ago. Oddly enough, it is called a 'Hubby' (I suspect it's the trademark) but it complains less than the real thing and doesn't let it's arms drop! It is a sort of collapsible skein holder comprising four arms, each with a peg at the outer end, and a wing nut at the centre. The wing nut is loosened enabling you to extend the arms, and then tightened to hold them in place. I suspect it fitted onto a stand at one time as there is a metal pin on the back. I fit the pin into a hole in a piece of flat board and it spins freely on this, enabling me to wind the skeins off with a ball winder. I also use it to wind skeins off the bobbins on my lazy kate as it is much quicker than the niddy noddy. I remember a lady at the Cov guild had something very similar that her brother made for her. |
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