Choosing A Great Yarn Ball Winder

If you're a serious knitter who buys hand-spun yarn or other artisan yarn in hanks or skeins, you will potentially desire to invest in some sort of ball winder, with or without a swift. The ball winder has a spindle or shaft around that the yarn is wrapped, while the swift supports the yarn in such a manner that it can simply be fed on to the winder. Winders can be manual or electrical, made of plastic or wood.

A popular , cheap model is the Lacis Yarn Ball Winder, a hand operated yarn winder which makes perfect pull thread balls up to 4 ounces without requiring tubes or cones. Its yarn feeder provides an even flow and forestalls tangling. Positive reviews mention that it is inexpensive (under $30), transportable and handles all weights of yarn with equal ease. Less positive reviews complain it's a small capacity winder, only up to 4oz per ball, that the clamp is too small for some tables, and you need to maintain an even strain of the yarn feed in order to get a firm ball.

Similar to the Lacis, is the Royal Wool Ball Winder. It is a little more costly, but looks to be correspondingly tougher. The Royal is designed in such a fashion that the yarn basically can't get caught in the mechanism. It also clamps to a table and works best with a swift.

Nancy’s Knit Knacks makes a slightly costly industrial quality wooden Ball Winder, typically designed for the yarn industry, but great at home, too. It is very strong with a big (high torque) wooden handle. The handle is cushty to utilise and exceedingly powerful, permitting it to wind fast, while making no noise. It can wind balls up to 1 Lb. Or more.

If your arm tires easily employing a hand winder, the Boye Electric Yarn Ball Winder could be the solution.. It fast and simply winds hanks of yarn into centre-pull skeins. It can wind thin yarns together to create different colours and thicknesses. Some users protest the yarn is wound to firmly, while others say the opposite, the ball is too loosely wound. Potentially the answer to the problem lies in fixing the turn-rate. Other users have moaned that the smooth plastic causes the yarn to slip off the end of the tube but lots of users find that the speed and simplicity of an electrical winder outweigh other troubles.

There's not a massive variety of Ball Winders to make a choice from. Factors that influence which one is right for you include price, volume of wool you want to wind, and space you have available. The big decision is whether to abandon Grandmother's back-of-the-chair method and invest in some technology to keep your knitting projects spinning along.

Have a look at our fun site about winders for yarn balls here. And have a look at this post about The Lacis Brandwhile you’re at it.