Blue Yarn Ball Winder with Yarn Umbrella Swift

I will admit, I have a bad habit: I buy way too much hand-dyed yarn. And as anyone who buys hand-dyed yarn knows, it more often than not comes in hanks, which look deceptively easy to wind. And as anyone who has tried to wind yarn by hand from a hank knows, what one can look at and think "hmm, this will take me 15 minutes to do!" will, without any rhyme or reason and despite one's best efforts, always inevitably turn into an inexplicable mess of knots and tangles that has you, even an hour later, cursing yourself for thinking winding the yarn would be a pleasant or easy task. That was the situation I found myself in several weeks ago, when a pair of lovely skeins of yarn I had thought would take just a few minutes to wind had turned into a few hours worth of work and had involved cutting the yarn, several times, because the more I attempted to untangle it the more that the fibers felted together, making it look like a stringy, raggedy mess before I even got to work with it. My precious cashmere blend, turning into nasty little felt rings! I had previously researched a yarn winder while under severe duress from the same misguided task several years ago (I never learn), but at the time, all of the available options were several hundred dollars in price-- a justifiable purchase for a yarn store who winds skeins as a customer courtesy, perhaps, but not for me, a lowly home knitter on a budget. However, when this time I looked, I happened across this listing for the LAMXD Yarn Ball Winder. Though I wondered how effective a yarn winder for such an inexpensive price could be, I looked at my growing collection of unwound hanks (many bought on clearance when my friendly local yarn store went on clearance as the owner retired, much to my despair), did some mental math, and decided that if, even if I only found function from the umbrella yarn holder attachment and needed to wind by hand, the savings in keeping my blood pressure down from no longer needing to stop every few minutes to untangle things would be well worth it. I can say with utter certainty, however, that, dozen of wound yarn balls later, this is one of the best purchases I have ever made. In the span of an hour (how long it would take me on average to wind, untangle, wind, untangle more, cut the yarn apart and then tie it together and continue to wind it, untangle (you get the deal)) a single skein of yarn, I am able to painlessly wind four or five, with a single hand, while reading. In the span of an afternoon, I had managed to wind my backlog of almost two-dozen skeins of yarn, all of which now sit neatly in my stash, awaiting use for future projects. Never again need I hold back from buying a yarn I love for fear of the headache transforming it into a ball it might cause me. This may be a blessing or curse, considering how expensive hand-dyed yarn can be... But I will choose, for now, to call it a blessing.

I was winding my hanks around the backs of two chairs and it would take a good 1/2 hour to complete. I bought a large amount of Egyptian cotton yarn some time ago on clearance and it's been sitting in a box because I just didn't have it in me to wind 20+ hanks....until now!! I was able to use the swift and winder to make 8 cakes in 45 minutes! It's worth every penny because of the time savings. Just a note about the winder coming loose--if you wind too quickly, it will not stay clamped. Also, the metal threader/tension rod tends to vibrate when winding, also causing it to come unclamped, so I used a piece of storage tape and taped it down to the counter I had it on. It worked beautifully and now I can wind fast and it doesn't go flying off! I saw other reviews of people winding skeins and I'm not sure why you would do that. This is really only designed for the hanks and I wouldn't waste my time with other balls. Highly recommend because of the cost and time savings overall; plus, all those beautiful sale hanks will now be of use to me!

The winder part of this is great. I absolutely love it. The umbrella portion though is a little lacking. It works good for the most part but if you have a skim that has a bigger circle then you will have difficulty of course. I felt it was a little flimsy as well.

I have never tried a yarn swift before, but having bought 12 hanks of hand-dyed yarn, I did not want to struggle with putting it into cakes on my own; I always manage to make a horrible tangled mess!! I do not understand how yarn swifts avoid this, but they do. It was very easy to set the swift up on my kitchen table, and no effort at all to get the yarn on it. I then cranked the yarn into a cake with the ball winder, and was absolutely delighted when not one tangle was met with! I had all 12 (good-sized) hanks of yarn wound into cakes within half an hour (it was probably less). I highly recommend this set; the price is very good compared to other brands, and quality is excellent. If you have wanted to try a swift and winder combo, but didn't want to pay big bucks for it, this is the set for you! Don't hesitate to give it a try-you will be very pleased.

If you knit or crochet, or do anything with hand dyed yarn, and you are tired of winding your yarn in a cake on the back of a chair or on your knees, do yourself a favor and get one of these. I had been looking at various styles and brands for a very long time, and finally decided on this one. And omg! what a difference!!! Setup was super easy, winding was a breeze, caking the yarn was quick....I cannot recommend it highly enough! Once you set it up correctly (make sure it's not wobbly), it is a smooth sailing. No squeaking, snagging, tangling....just spinning and done! Just get one!

Okay, is it noisey? yep. Is it cheap? Very. Does it do its job anyway? Absolutely. I don't seem to have pictures from when I used the swift, but it was easy enough and worked as expected. Yesterday I decided to change a pattern after having already gone through about half a cake of yarn art flower yarn. I was able to tka ethe project entirely apart, have yarn spigehetti for a few mins and wind it all up into a neat, compact, knot free cake. 5 stars because although the materials used are cheap, it does it's job for not a ton of money, and that's kinda the point right?

I love this thing! Easy to set up and use. works perfectly!

1) Did not come with instructions. 2) The center metal rod of the yarn swift (umbrella like piece) needs to sit on the table otherwise the yarn swift comes down. 3) Both clamps do not stay secure and I constantly had to unscrew and tighten again. Frustrating. On the positive side, it's in expensive and did do the job.

Als ich mir kürzlich alle meine Wollstränge angesehen habe, wurde klar: Diese per Hand zu wickeln kostet mich eine halbe Woche Lebenszeit und wer will das schon. Diesen Wollwickler habe ich daraufhin bestellt, weil er gleich alles im Set hat, was zum Wolle wickeln notwendig ist, und auch aufgrund der guten Kritiken. Die Lieferung erfolgte schnell und der Aufbau am Küchentisch klappte gleich ohne Anleitung. Diese ist übrigens zwar auf Englisch aber mit Bildern und somit auch ohne jegliche Sprachkenntnisse zu gebrauchen. Das Wickelergebnis hat mich entzückt. Die ersten beiden Stränge sahen schon gut aus, ab dem dritten hätte der Bobbbel auch aus einem Laden sein können. Die Zeitersparnis ist natürlich enorm, das geht wirklich ruckzuck. Ich weiß nicht, ob das ohnehin bei jedem Wollwickler so ist, aber bei diesem funktioniert das Wickeln sowohl rechts als auch links herum. Wer also lieber mit der linken Hand arbeitet, sollte hier kein Problem haben. Dass es sich um ein Plastikteil handelt, ist in folgendem Punkt sogar von Vorteil: Das Set ist leicht und lässt sich wirklich gut mit auf Reisen nehmen. Ich bin von der Verarbeitungsqualität, dem Handling und dem Ergebnis - also die fertig gewickelten Wollstränge - vollends überzeugt und sehr zufrieden.

Excellent rapport qualité prix pour cet kit tout en un très pratique, solide et qui fonctionne très bien. Facile à utiliser et à ranger avec la petite housse. Les fixations n’abîment pas les supports sur lesquels on visse. Je recommande. En revanche, il ne s’agit pas d’un « bel » objet à exposer dans son atelier 😉

Arrived quickly

Product arrived faster than expected, but the box was squashed/ripped and broken, with the 'vanes' of the spindle snapped from the center pole. Thread snips were missing as well. Ball-winder intact and functions, so am happy with that part of the bundle but over-all, disappointed.

The ball winder is fine, I give it 4 stars. The screw to keep the Swift upright does not hold and so the upright section slides down to table level making it impossible to turn and therefore useless.