Hello! I promised we'd get back to yarn today. I want to show off my fabulous new tool. Almost every true "project" requires the acquisition of at least one new tool. Even Man of the House agrees with me on this, although his definition of what constitutes a "tool" probably differs from mine. A couple of weeks ago I showed you this wool afghan I got for $10 at Goodwill and am frogging to reuse the yarn:
This was the first batch of yarn I had frogged, all ready to be wound into balls on my handy ball winder, and I decided to try winding the yarn without using a swift.
(Swift: 1. n. An adjustable device on which a hank of yarn is placed in order to wind off skeins or balls. 2. Slang: smart, clever)
A typical yarn swift:
The choice to do it without a swift was less than swift, let me tell you! I ended up with a tangled mess of green yarn. NOT happy. Now here's the thing about yarns swifts--they are expensive! Like $60 or $70 expensive. Really hard for me to justify, especially since I don't need it that often. And spending that kind of money would kind of negate my frugal find of $10 for the afghan. But I recalled having seen on a blog that someone had built herself a swift out of ordinary household items, thusly:
There's a whole blog post here about how to make one yourself. Pretty clever and resourceful! I tried to duplicate this, but somehow it just didn't work well for me. I ended up with yet another mess. But I am now happy to report that I am the proud owner of a lovely, useful, and reasonably priced yarn swift--behold!
I found this at Scott's Mountain Crafts, and I couldn't be happier! I've used it to help me wind several balls of yarn and it works very well. It takes about 5 seconds to set it up for use, and it's nice and compact for storage:
Best of all, it was under $30 including shipping. Perfect for me! If you've been considering getting a swift without breaking the bank, I think you'd really like this.
Do you have any favorite tools for your yarn projects? I'm always looking for things I didn't know I needed!
Have a great day everyone!
5 comments:
HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY...I NEVER HAVE HEARD OF A SWIFT BEFORE...I HAD NO IDEA. IT WOULD BE WORTH CONSIDERING, BETTER THAN THE KNOT MESS...OH BOTHER...AFGHAN SO FITTING FOR THE DAY..THANKS FOR THE INFO...
Wow, I never knew about this! My sister-in-law offered me a ball winder. I'd never used one of those, either, so I hope I don't find that I need to buy another tool! ;-)
Very cool find! I've seen the swifts on other blogs but what I don't get is how it's used to make the balls. I think I'm gonna search out some YouTube videos.
Thanks for this. Very interesting and so nice of you to share. I don't like to shell out too much money for projects if it's for something I won't use all the time, so this is great to know about!
How have I missed your blog? I saw your comment on my blog and decided to visit yours. Great job! I haven't used a swift before but I can see where it would come in handy.
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