Stanwood Needlecraft Large Metal Yarn/Fiber/Wool/String Ball Winder - 10 oz

I had bought an inexpensive plastic winder before this one and this is definitely the way to go. The metal gears are worth the price difference. I have wound so many yarn cakes and the only limit to how fast I can turn it is how hot my fingers get from tensioning the yarn as it feeds. The speed is awesome. I use some little fabric thimble sleeve things to protect my fingers so that I don’t accidentally friction burn myself. The cakes always come out uniform and easy to use when knitting. The table clamp works very well on a flat table top and is solid once clamped down. And the cakes remove from the winder very easily. I can’t recommend highly enough. I need this company to keep making these so I can still find one whenever mine somehow breaks someday.

I just assembled my yarn winder, which was very easy. It was so easy to use and I'm thrilled with my beautiful yarn cakes. Most yarn winders I saw were for small sizes like 4oz. I was hoping this bigger one would be good for 10oz and was worried reading the negative reviews. It looks like it can do more so 8oz. It is sturdy, good quality, and looks like it can handle a lot of yarn. Thus far it works great on some partially used yarns I had on hand, and it is really fun to use. I'm excited to have my yarn better for stacking and storing.Tip: I was holding the yarn to help guide it, and I realized my tension made for it harder to wind. My tip is to not hold it too tight, or who knows if you even need to hold it at all.

I've been working on a project and the yarn kept getting twisted and tangled because I tried to pull it from the center. I knew I needed to wind the yarn into a new ball but the cheap winder I bought did not work. When looking online a lot of people recommended this brand, so I took the chance. I'm happy to say it was well worth the month ($80 in 2025).It worked perfectly. Bonus, it was a lot of fun to use. After receiving I immediately wound two balls of Bernat Forever Fleece Yarn (6 super bulky) and they are beautiful. So glad i got this, and highly recommend to anyone who needs to wind yarn.The winder is solid metal and made well. Packaging was excellent.

[Photo: Cake of 608-yard Lily Sugar'n Cream Big Ball 100% cotton yarn in Emerald Isle, wound in under 10 minutes.]I haven’t been knitting long, but long enough to know that winding a 400yd skein of yarn by hand is as close to the definition of “tedious” as anything I’ve ever come across. I usually buy yarn in skeins (not hanks), and while skeins technically don't have to be wound into balls or cakes like hanks do, I find doing so reduces the chance of getting things tangled beyond repair.There were many different winders that all had very good reviews, though I suspect the joy of switching to a winder after doing it manually probably makes many reviewers overvalue the quality of the winder itself. I wanted a model that I could use for even the largest amounts of yarn I've ever bought—the Lily Sugar ’n Cream Big Ball (608yd) shown in the picture—yet still work well for winding up remnants and small skeins. I was ready to select a similar model from Royal when I found this one. Many, many reviews for several different winders made note of the noise produced by winders with metal gears (something like an eggbeater, I would imagine, or even louder). I often work late at night when the rest of the world is asleep, so metal gears were not ideal. When I came across this Stanwood model with nylon gears, I decided to try it.When I unpacked the box, I found a high-quality winder that was easy to assemble using only a regular Phillips screwdriver to attach the outer arm. I bolted it down to the table and tried it out with one of my pitifully hand-rolled balls that I had been working from, and I found that it was a little tight and difficult to turn the crank. That was easily fixed by loosening a screw at the bottom of the core, according to the included instruction sheet. When I did that, it worked beautifully. All my old balls were quickly turned into cakes. Then I started another skein of 608yd cotton yarn, which I was able to wind in under 10 minutes. Yes, five minutes compared to well over an hour by hand!I have found that it's often helpful to wind a cake twice. The first time I do so, the tension tends to vary as I move the yarn from the store-bought skein to the winder, especially toward the end of the skein where it likes to tangle. The second time I wind it, it winds up evenly and beautifully since it's coming from the center of the cake I wound in the first stage. Simply holding the yarn taught (not tight) between the fingers of my left hand and cranking with my right, it takes no time at all to get a cake that's beautiful enough for any wedding. ;-) I've wound various yarns in DK (3), worsted (4), bulky (5), and super bulky (6) weights, made of 100% wool, 100% acrylic, 100% cotton, and wool/acrylic blends. I haven't had any problems with any of them.Working from them couldn't be easier. When you've finished winding, find some way of securing the outer end (tuck it under another strand, wrap it with something, etc) before you remove it, then HOLD THE END in the center while pulling the whole cake up off the core. If you don't hold the center, it tends to fall down through and (maybe) come out the bottom instead. You'll probably have a small amount of yarn at the beginning that sort of "sticks out" the top, but provided you pull from the center, you'll go through that in no time and it will be nice and uniform thereafter.The cakes store neatly, don't roll around everywhere, and are a breeze to work from. I believe this winder will last for a very long time, and there's nothing about it I dislike. It does its job quickly, quietly, and easily.