I've been using a small yarn winder for a little over a year - one with exposed gears, and I've been so frustrated with the way the yarn sometimes flies off it, or loosens and tangles into the gears.
Ordered this one early this week, and it got to me ahead of schedule...of course I had to try it right away! It was easy to assemble, and wound yarn with no problem. A neat, perfectly tensioned yarn cake was the end result.
I will say that I debated between this one and one with metal gears, for durability's sake, and the nylon gears on this one are a tiny bit rough. However, I watched videos of both in action, and I knew the loud grinding of the metal gears would eliminate any enjoyment in the yarn-winding process! This one is no noisier than my small one, and it winds yarn much faster. All in all, I'm very pleased.
This Large Metal Winder with the Nylon Gears is so much smoother & eaiser to use then the smaller cheap Plastic one I bought first that was a waiste of money.
This one holds more yarn, winds so smoothly, I Love it, makes nice stackable center feed yarn cakes that have flat tops & bottoms, so No more balls rolling all around..
These yarn cakes Save on space too.
Example : 5 skiens of Simply soft became 2 stackable cakes, taking up much less space then 5 full skein, see attached pictures.
Same thing with a Large skein of Loops & Thread's Impeccable became 2 cakes.
I'm very impressed with this one and highly recommend it. Super Space Savers! ! 😀
I have now owned my winder for a year and I have used it often, I have rolled about 1,000 skeins, lol, It recently started skip a bit, so my hubby Cleaned all the fuzz an goo that built up around the gears tightened the bolts up and now it is working like new again, I still give this winder 5 stars and I still think it's the best winder out there, definitely worth the money!! It is still going strong! 😄
I received this as a Christmas gift, so I've had it a few weeks now. I had about 4 large plastic bins full of yarn skeins/balls that I wanted to turn into cakes so I knew this was going to take a bit of time to do. The Stanwood yarn winder did its job very, very well. Set-up was a little bit confusing because the sheet of directions that came with it were not as clear as they should have been. But, I finally figured it out without having to resort to watching a YouTube video. (It was nice to know that that was a back-up plan if needed.)
The biggest skeins that I had that I needed to wind into cakes weighed 7 ounces. The yarn winder took care of them easily. They were BIG yarn cakes by the time I finished winding them and I'm glad that I bought this bigger version so that it could handle the bigger skeins. I didn't attempt to wind anything bigger than 7 ounces because I really don't think it could have handled that amount of yarn in one cake. I personally think it would be better to turn a 10-ounce skein into two 5-ounce cakes or a one-pounder into three cakes.
Depending on the skein of yarn that you are trying to wind, the machine runs very smoothly for the most part but if there's a "hitch" in the yarn coming from the skein it will cause the Stanwood to glitch and hesitate. If that happens you have to put some effort into turning the crank to keep it going.
I helped guide the yarn into the yarn winder. I suppose that you could just let it feed directly from the skein into the machine but it seemed to wind better if I held the strand of yarn coming from the skein with my left hand and turned the crank with my right hand. That enabled me to catch yarn barf before it got tangled up in the yarn feed.
The ONLY thing that I haven't seen addressed here is that once you start pulling the yarn up from the center of the completed cake to actually make something, with time it turns into what I can only describe as a beehive or a silo. I'm not sure if that's because I have would the yarn too tightly or whether this is just the way the machine makes the yarn cakes. It still works, but it's just strange that it turns into that shape after awhile. My solution is to go back to the yarn winder and reform the cake again. It takes almost no time at all to do it so it's not a big deal to me.
I have wound probably over 125-150 skeins and balls of yarn since I got this a few weeks ago and I have to say that I'm really glad I have it. I am able to fit my yarn neatly into my plastic bins now that they stack so nicely.
This is a well-made yarn winder. It is sturdy. You "get what you pay for" many times and to me this is a top-of-the-line yarn winder. I highly recommend it.
I hemmed and hawed about paying this much for a ball winder, but it really is great. the arm nearest the spindle also spins so it winds 2x as fast.
My only complaint is the bottom threaded clamp. I attach it to a table that has a small lip, there's enough depth for it to clamp on but because the crank is all one piece and bent metal I can't tighten it in place (see photo). If it had a sliding mechanism (like a bench clamp) that would make it perfect.
I've combined two skeins into one with no twisting.
Feature Product
- CENTER-PULL YARN BALL,our yarn winder creates yarn balls with the string that can be pull from thecenter, making your knitting sessions convenient and neat.
- ULTRA HEAVY DUTY, our yarn winder is constructed from 3-millimeter-thick steel with rust-resistantpowder coating to ensure it will stay in place so you can organize your yarns quickly and safely.
- REINFORCED NYLON GEAR, our specific gears are designed to be both durable and flexible. Tough enoughto handle high-speed winding, soft enough to ensure the gear noise is at anabsolute minimum.
- 10 OUNCE CAPACITY, our winder can handle more than 2 times the yarn a conventional winder can handle, which can reduce your workload by half.
- TOOL-LESS SETUP, trying to find a wrench to set up to wind is annoying, so we designed our winder to be set up without any hassle, so you can wind faster.
Description
For sale is a jumbo size metal ball winder. This super high quality winder is built to withstand heavy use. In comparison to competitors' models, our model has the following advantages: (1) We use special nylon material for cogwheels. They are super strong but make much less noise than the metal cogwheels; (2) Our model does not require tools to assemble; (3) Our frame is painted by electrostatic painting so the paint won't come off; 4) The edges of this machine are super smooth. It won't leave any marks on your table. This winder can handle about 10 oz. of yarn, which is 2.5 times of what our smaller winder does. It can be clamped onto a table up to 2 1/8" thick. It is best to be used with a swift yarn winder (Umbrella or Amish style, both available under Stanwood Needlecraft brand names). But you can easily replace a swift with other devices or just simply your arms. Customer Service Team/Quality Assurance Team/Technical Assistance Team 1-310-962-9184
I bought another winder first and gave it away. This one is so much sturdier and seems to hold up well. I wonder why it made a little snappy noise at first, not annoying, just there. Then I found a small piece of the packaging plastic caught inside the wheel. After taking that out, It was very quiet. I do like the soft sound of the gears, it is relaxing. I only found one problem and it may not be a problem, actually. The smaller gear got some kind of oily substance on it and between the gear and the nut. I do not know what this is, but it hasn't affected the working and it doesn't get on the yarn. I will just watch it and clean it off. Or maybe it is supposed to be there to keep the gears running smooth?!
I spent two or three days winding yarns that I've had around t(hat were falling apart) as well as newer skeins that needed winding.Yarns from bulky to lace...fuzzy to silky....small amounts and large amounts. I put it through the mill and it works just as good as the first time.
So this gem was delivered to me earlier today in the afternoon. It took less than 5 minutes to assemble. The instructions were very clear and they used color photos for demonstration. I made 20 cakes in a few short hours. I wound from 7 oz. skeins. It was smooth and fast and my cakes look great! I am so happy I spent the extra and purchased this quality product. I foresee years of use ahead of me.
I've wanted one of these for a while now and after researching them, settled on this one as I wanted one that could handle 7-10 ounce skeins and was quiet. This also makes small cakes for those partial skeins. I'm very pleased with this winder, and my husband set it up in minutes and I was happily winding away. It's simple to use, and I can wind a seven ounce skein in 90 seconds. It is possible to wind too fast and yarn can get where it shouldn't be. I lay the skein on the table for a center pull and put smaller non-center pulls in a large bowl so they can bounce around safely. I put a rubber band over the starting yarn in the center slot and use a light tension running the yarn through my hand. Make sure you have a hold on the yarn in the slot when you slide the cake off or you can lose that end inside the cake. I roll the wrapper into a tube and use a rubber band to attach it to the side of the cake. It's so simple, and I love it. I have so much more room in my cupboards and in my work in progress baskets. I highly recommend this winder.
Many of the reviews for this mention how good it is to have a ball winder, compared to having no ball winder at all. What I wanted to know was, "will this one be worth the price difference when compared to the smaller plastic ones?" And the answer is a definite "yes." I teach knitting and have owned a plastic ball winder and a good wooden swift for 15 years. The small plastic ball winder was a constant source of frustration because the yarn would tangle in the gears, the top spool would pop off, or the little metal arm would not stay up, and sometimes all three things would go wrong at once.
This one costs a little bit more but is vastly superior. It's fast, smooth, and quiet. I attach the yarn end through the slot on the top as instructed, but for very fine laceweight yarns I'll secure the end with a little bit of tape to make sure I can find it again when done winding, because I like to pull from the center. My local yarn shop uses this exact same ball winder.
This was quick to put together and fun to use! I wound 49 skeins and balls of various size and thicknesses on the first night. All went without a hitch. When it comes to the thicker yarns, specifically Red Heart, it will hold a full 10oz, but you will need to hold the yarn more tautly. A fairly loose tension will only hold about 7oz. It did not hold one of the super saver's in it's entirety.
Yarns I put through it last night were: 100% cotton, Caron's Simply Soft, Red Heart, Red Heart Velvety, and a bulky and super bulky yarn that I no longer have the tags for, and cannot remember the names. The super bulky has 3 strands of 4 ply yarn, so it is SUPER bulky. All went through smoothly. You will know it is time to stop winding when the rotating arm starts to touch the cake.
The cakes themselves are much more compact than the balls were, and I can fit a lot more in the space they were in.
This product brought a neat and tidy way of seeing all my yarns up on my shelf, and saved me from digging through a basket of yarn balls. The cakes are much smoother to pull from as well, saving me from the tension issues I was having tugging on a ball.
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