Toy? Not a Toy.
I’m a fan of good tools. If you come to any of my classes I will show you the benefits of using hand cards made for wool rather than using brushes made for dogs. I will let you try my combs so you can see how they work better than combs made using hair picks. And I will expound on the benefits of having an actual flick that was made with carding cloth rather than a pet comb. Not that all of those other things won’t get you results, they just won’t get you teh best results you can get leading to better yarn in the end.
Because of my love of tools, I have a tendency to invest in them. I’m not a big buyer of dyed fiber since I love white and also raw fleeces so I put my savings toward new tools when I come across something I’m sure I can’t live without. Often I just continue to use the stuff I already had and was comfortable with. But, every once in a while I get something new that makes me relax my shoulders a bit and smile on the inside and out.
I’m telling yuo all this because in May I got a new toy. But it’s turning out to be a thing I get out and use very often. If you would have asked me last year, I would have said it wasn’t necessary. Well, today I’m saying save your pennies.
I know, it’s a swift. But here’s the thing. right now I’m winding skeins that are between 900 and 1500 yards after I ply. Winding those skeins on a niddy noddy kills my arm. This thing can lay on it’s side and it has a hande for winding. Plus it has sealed bearings that make it turn really smoothly.
It also has a counter. You can get the swift without the counter but when you are making big skeins and don’t have to count it’s very happy making.
I put a mark on the center so I know where the the swift will make a 2 yard skein.
The swift is very stable because of this great clamping system that will clamp on almost any thickness of table or counter.
Yes, it’s expensive, but I have 2 other swifts that I rarely use anymore. I’ll definitely be getting my money’s worth out of this one. It’s called the Schacht Ultra Umbrella Swift. And it lives up to its name.
You can see another review of it on Knitty, here http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEdf13/FEATdf13stuff.php
And if you want to see what Schacht has to say about their own swift you can look here. http://www.schachtspindle.com/our_products/ball_winders_swifts.php#ultraswift