If you are a devoted knitter who buys hand-spun yarn or other artisan yarn in hanks or skeins, you'll very well want to buy some sort of ball winder, without or with 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 way that it can simply be fed on to the winder. Winders can be manual or electrical, made from plastic or wood.

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

Very similar to the Lacis, is the Royal Wool Ball Winder. It is a little more dear, but seems to be correspondingly tougher. The Royal is designed in such a way the yarn fundamentally cannot get caught in the mechanism. It also clamps to a table and works best with a swift.

Nancy’s Knit Knacks makes a slightly dear heavy usage wooden Ball Winder, typically designed for the yarn industry, but great at home, too. It is really strong with an enormous (high torque) wooden handle. The handle is cushty to use and exceedingly powerful, permitting it to wind fast, while making no noise. It can wind balls up to 1 Lb. Or even more.

If your arm tires easily employing a hand winder, the Boye Electrical Yarn Ball Winder might be the solution.. It fast and easily winds hanks of yarn into centre-pull skeins. It can wind thin yarns together to make different colours and thicknesses. Some users complain the yarn is wound to firmly, while others say the opposite, that the ball is too loosely wound. Probably the solution to the issue lies in changing the turn-rate. Other users have complained that the smoothness of the plastic causes the yarn to slip off the end of the tube but lots of users find that the speed and ease of an electrical winder outweigh other troubles.

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

Have a look at our overwhelmingly cool site about yarn ball winding here. And have a look at this post about Laciswhile you are there.