Stanwood Needlecraft Wooden Umbrella Swift - Large

The media could not be loaded.  As you can see in my video, we have this swift paired with one of the Stnwood ball winders -- and it's an excellent combination. For years all of our skeins of yarn have been unwound by hand, with one of us holding the skein and the other one making the ball. (The "knee method" was also used dozens of times, never to much avail.) While those procedures "built community" between us knitters and all of that, using this swift and a ball winder has been a vast improvement. I say this because the cakes of yarn that come off the ball winder are easier to work with (they don't roll) and easier on the yarn over time when doing large projects like blankets and sweaters.I like this swift because, as a piece of technology, it looks like it could have been hand crafted 100 years ago. The screw-clamps are made of wood, and the entire thing is an exercise in simplicity. The only two tricks in working with it are 1) finding a good place for it to move freely, and 2) getting the skeins on the swift. As I show in my video, we've found the loosening it up a bit is a good way to get the skein over and onto the swift before expanding it out a bit. I'm sure there's another method, but this has worked for me.Now that I've seen and used this, I think you could make one yourself -- it would just take some precise woodworking.We're super happy with this swift, as it spins perfectly and is the easiest and quickest way imaginable to cake up a skein of yarn..................This product was NOT given to me as part of any promotion. I bought it after doing some comparison shopping and this review is entirely the result of my own opinions and use of the product.

This particular swift was recommended by a friend and I bought it because it can handle extra large hanks of yarn, up to 8.5’ Most other swifts can only take hanks to 6’. I come across quite a few of these and winding without a swift is not something I’m good at.However, when it arrived, both wooden knobs were missing. Instead of returning it to amazon, get a refund, then ordering the same thing again, I decided to get in touch with the manufacturer. After some back and forth with their customer service rep, they offered to send the missing knobs. 4 days later the knobs arrived. Thanks for great customer service.The knobs were a very tight fit and when trying to screw the table clamp knob in, it screeched like an angry cat. But after a lot of wax, it now moves quietly. Better too tight than loose and not staying put.The entire swift feels sturdy and the umbrella slats are not flimsy and are smooth, so delicate yarns won’t catch on anything. The swift turns smoothly without a hitch.Very happy with the service and swift.

Broken after first use

After using a cheap plastic version that eventually fell apart I purchased this Stanwood and am very happy I did, very easy to use, winds quickly without tangles. I got the largest size but on reflection should have got a smaller one but overall very happy.

It is a perfect tool for winding skeins of yarn to balls of yarn!!!

EDIT: see conversation below. After some work, it's running really great and smoothly now so I'm upgrading my review to 4 stars. Now that it's turning smoothly it's cooperating more with my ballwinder and it was pretty peaceful this weekend as long as i was winding at a medium rate. The squeak returns if I go too slow.I bought this swift after springing for a wooden ball winder wanting something matching but affordable.I should have kept my metal and plastic one instead as this is LOUD and does not turn easily!A deal, but in the long run it's better to wait and buy a nice crafted one or stick to the plastic/metal umbrella swifts.

I love that it is made of wood and appears to be sturdy. I have used it and the adjustments are easy to make.

I love this. My husband always helped my wind my yarn, but now he doesn’t. I will say that the wooden joints were a little stiff and I need the help of my husband to loosen them for me.

I feel like the only thing that would make this better was if the wood was stained/sealed. Its very smooth but it fees quite raw.Other than that Im happy to have a large swift! It shipped fairly quickly, it was marked as being delayed due to weather even though there wasn't any major weather events going on, but I won't take away stars for shipping. The product itself is exactly as advertised and I have a feeling it will get plenty of use.

I am very pleased with this umbrella winder and have so much fun using it I offer to wind skeins for others . Impressed with quality of the material.

I am a weaver and a knitter and this yarn winder is amazing. My poor husband used to assist me in winding yarn that took hours. Now I do it by myself rapidly. More time to weave and knit.Good quality.

Love this wooden yarn winder; not sure why I didn't splurge earlier. Frees me from asking my hubby to sit for hours with his arms going numb!!

I've wound about 1/2 dozen skeins so far, and I'm very happy. The unit was easy to attach to a table. The wooden clamp seems to hold secure without damaging anything. It expands to a nice circumference to accommodate large skeins but also handles smaller skeins just as well. The spinning action is smooth and virtually silent.I paired this with the Stanwood Needlecraft Large Metal Yarn/fibre/Wool/String Ball Winder. The two work very well together and allow me to tame very large skeins into manageable, neat balls.