Made a yarn swift

[Zach Dillinger]

Guys,

I finished a small project for my wife. She is a knitter and often buys loose skeins of yarn. To wind these into a useable ball, she needed a swift and nostiprinne. So, I made her one of each.

They were fun, quick projects. The bows on the swift are walnut and were cut out with a cutting gauge, rather than sawn. The hubs and central pike are birch. The joints were tied with hemp cord and fine gauge wire was used to attach the bows to the hubs.The nostiprinne is made of walnut and red oak and was turned out on my spring pole lathe.

The whole thing spins nicely and has already been used twice. If you are interested, more photos and details of construction are here: http://www.eatoncountywoodworker.blogspot.com/

swift_with_yarn_2.jpgadjuster_2.jpgball_winder_2.jpg

[David Weaver]

How does it work? Do you manually wind the yarn around the large thing by turning it and then wind it on to something else to make a ball?

[Zach Dillinger]

David,

Yarn is sometimes sold in large loose skeins, which is basically a big coil of yarn. You take that and drop it over the top of the swift. The bottom hub rides on a fence, which is tightened on the central pike. When you raise the bottom hub, the outside diameter of the walnut bows gets larger, which allows you to accomodate different sized skeins. Once you have the skein centered in the middle of the swift, you turn the screw and lock the diameter. The whole shebang then revolves around the pike. You take the loose end and wrap it around the nostiprinne, which is a fancy word for ball winding stick. 10 or 15 minutes later, you've made a nice, useable ball of yarn from a large, relatively useless skein. Not something a knitter needs every day, but when you need one its the only thing that will do.

Zach

[Jerome Hanby]

So would this have any use for the yarn you buy at the fabric store? I know my wife spends time winding those packages into a ball before she starts using it...

[Zach Dillinger]

I'm not sure if it would help there or not. I'll ask my wife, she will probably know.

[Jerome Hanby]

Thanks Zack. I seem to be in the dog house for some reason that escapes me. Maybe this would be a good project to help things on the home front.

[Michael Ray Smith]

Very cool!!

[Jay Maiers]

Neat!
Any chance you could take a couple of close-up photos of the joints at the hub as well as the ends of the bows?
Thanks

[Zach Dillinger]

Neat!
Any chance you could take a couple of close-up photos of the joints at the hub as well as the ends of the bows?
Thanks

Jay, I sure can. Probably will be tomorrow before I can snap some pics though.

[Jay Maiers]

Jay, I sure can. Probably will be tomorrow before I can snap some pics though.

No problem there. My wife has waited this long for one, another day won't make a difference
(Kidding. She doesn't even know she needs one of these yet. It'll be great if I can beat her to it!)

[Greg Gregoire]

I spent a good portion of my childhood with my hands inside a skein of yard while my mother wound the yarn into a ball. she could have used a swift but with 8 children in the house she always had two hands available.

[Zach Dillinger]

I spent a good portion of my childhood with my hands inside a skein of yard while my mother wound the yarn into a ball. she could have used a swift but with 8 children in the house she always had two hands available.

No children in my house, and I don't have the will to stand there and hold yarn for my wife. I've got stuff to do!

[Pat Barry]

One of my jobs as a kid was to wind the yarn into a ball. I did it very well (so said my mom). It kept me occupied for long periods of time. Looking back, I'm sure she had me do it to stay out of trouble that I would get into if left on my own. Doing the ball rolling kept me in sight and out of trouble (off the streets?)

[Federico Mena Quintero]

This is really cool! Seeing handmade tools for other trades gives me the warm fuzzies.

[Zach Dillinger]

Thanks Zack. I seem to be in the dog house for some reason that escapes me. Maybe this would be a good project to help things on the home front.

Jerome, I asked the wife. She said it probably wouldn't be too helpful, since any efficiency you gain in winding the ball is offset by the fact that you would first have to wind the store-skein around the swift. You could still make one, however, and encourage her to buy some coil skein yarn. That way, you can still get out of the doghouse!