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

Standwood Yarn Winder is Excellent, Worth the Price!
I just received this Standwood Yarn Winder and I’m very very happy with it. It was easy to use, only one piece to assemble and it wound a worsted weight 100gr/3.5 oz skein into a “cake” of yarn into about 2 minutes. The gears and mechanisms are very smooth. (Yes, the technical term is a “cake” of yarn. Fine by me – I love a good cake!)I had bought another yarn winder, a VTECH (ASIN: B00DKW9F6A) which was cheaper – $20.00 – but the arm (the “distal” wire arm) that is supposed to feed the yarn to the bobbin would not stay up. The yarn kept getting caught in the gears. I returned it.(FYI – returning things shipped by Amazon is very easy. You just repack it, print out the return info and put it with the box. Amazon arranges for UPS to pick it up. UPS puts the actual return label on the package. And I received my refund almost immediately.)Before I bought this Standwood I watched a video on YOUTUBE which shows how to use it. After watching this I decided it was a well made machine worth the price – my total was $65.92 with tax. Here’s the link to the video. I suggest you watch before you buy.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8hWprCmJ_I&list=PLSiuNuWv7q4xEEaKACQm–KJZfVYrS5jc&index=75PROS: The only assembly is having to lock on the “distal” arm. Easy.It’s a well made sturdy machine.It does make large “cakes” of yarn (the VTECH I had bought first did not) and it does it quickly.On other winders the yarn winds directly from the feeder wire (the “distal” arm) onto the bobbin. But the Stanwood has another wire arm called the “proximal” arm which spins around the bobbin as you crank the machine. This keeps the yarn away from the gears. See the image above – the wire arm on the left is the “distal” arm and the one of the right is the “proximal” arm.CONS: The instructions that came with the winder could be better. The YOUTUBE video I listed above has better info.NOTE: Most yarn winders are made to be used with swifts. Swifts hold a hank of yarn and sit higher than the winder and so feed the yarn from above. The loop on the “distal” arm is made with this in mind. You can see from the picture above that the end of the loop points down. I wasn’t using a swift but was winding a cake from a manufacturer skein (these always end up tangling which is why I purchased this winder). When the yarn being fed to the “distal” arm is below it the yarn can slip partly out of the loop. I initially held up the yarn to keep it in the “distal” loop. But the faster you go the better the yarn stays in the loop.SUGGESTION: The winder comes with a little piece of plastic that sits between the machine and the crank which stops it from moving during shipping. KEEP THIS. It’s helpful to keep the crank in place when you are attaching the machine to the table.

This is the one you want! (plus tips for usage)
[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.

Caked up yarn is probably the best thing ever for yarn crafts, it’s easy to store and convenient to use. The stanwood does an amazing job of caking up yarn. It feels extremely well-built and cakes wound using it are practically perfect. It might be a lot pricier than other smaller yarn winders but the quality you get from this far exceed the competition at equivalent or lower price points.

I was hesitant to buy this as it is not cheap. However, when I received it, I instantly realised that it is worth every cent. It is very sturdy, and very easy to use. It flies through my unruly yarn balls and makes nice neat centre pull balls in no time. I also like to combine 2 or 3 strands of left over yarns to make colourful thick yarn balls. The Stanwood copes without any issues.I have another, smaller winder of a different brand which can only make small balls, I will be retiring it as this Stanwood is far superior!You will not regret buying one!