The handle of my first ball winder has gone and decided to break off this week. I’m in the middle of my mitred squares project to get rid of all my stash and need to wind more yarn this weekend!! I’ve wound a lot of yarn on this thing and it’s taken a beating with my “let’s wind as fast as possible” mentality, which in reality is me cranking the handle as close as possible to the speed of light. So for me, the impatient one, a ball winder with a plastic handle may not have been the greatest idea but it’s lasted a year of me trying to break it and I’ve wound hundreds of thousands of yards in just about every acrylic yarn you will find on the shelf at Jo-ann’s and Michael’s to precious Malabrigo sock yarn and Delicato Layer’s Tencil.
“Why on earth would I want to pay $50+ for a ball winder when I can wind my yarn by hand for free?” this is what I said some two years ago now when the bulk of the yarn I bought was from some craft store chain and the skein comes in a form that you can pull from one end and wind by hand. So my answers to that question, now that I have grown up a little:
• Time – the amount of time it takes me to wind by hand is longer than the time it takes to use a ball winder. There’s also the added bonus of not cutting off circulation as I do when I wind by hand.
• Two at a time toe up socks – to a beginner this may sound absurd but it’s really not that hard and being able to pull from both ends of the ball is a plus.
• Evenness & Consistency – When I ball yarn I tend to have to chase it. Using a ball winder was nicer because I got a yarn cake in the end and who doesn’t like cake? A ball winder will give you the “cake” because of the base in place as the yarn wraps around the cone, which prevents the yarn from actually turning into a sphere.
• Keep the Tag – I used to be that person who threw away the tag. If make habit out of losing the tag because you have an elephant’s memory, I tip my hat to you. For those of us that are not lucky enough to have an elephants memory, we may want to stop and think about it, not having the tag means you miss out on the fiber content, colorway/dyelot, and brand. Ball winder makes it easier to stick the tag in the hole as you slip the yarn cake off the cone.
Would I buy Stanwood Needlecraft YBW-A Hand-Operated Yarn Ball Winder, 4-Ounce
again?
Not for myself, but for an aspiring yarn enthusiast this would make a great gift. Now that I have grown a little, I’ll be looking for a slightly more expensive winder.
