Do you have a yarn winder? What are the benefits?

[Suddengeekgirl]

I'm a crocheter and I keep seeing people talking/ using yarn winders and 'caking' yarn.

I'm toying with buying a yarn winder, as I do like things to be neat, but I'm not really sure of the benefits IYSWIM.

I've got a blanket project in my to do list which is a many coloured, join as you go job so maybe just having a basket of small balls would be better than 15+ half used ones?

Tell me about your yarn winding please! :)

I don't routinely rewind " balls" of wool eg. dB baby cash merino but after a few noro colour change/splicing in ball disasters buggering up my projects I always rewind it as forewarned is forearmed....

I got a 1950's wire swift and on another occasion, a 1950s' still-in-the-original-box ball winder, in charity shops for a couple of quid each, many years ago. The ball winder is still in use but I eventually pensioned off the swift and got a new, wooden one. They're in constant use - in fact I wound a load of balls of wool this morning. I'm a handspinner, so can't manage without them! I do have a nostepinne, but it's painfully slow and boring so I just have it for if I was travelling or going somewhere, as it's more portable.

I've just spent a happy 3 hours untangling and rewinding collapsed balls of Stylecraft :)

I'm quite lucky, we always have winders and swifts available at my weekly knit meetup!
Someone's always winding something and passing it around for a good squishing.

Tonight is/was the night, after a hectic day I planned on winding yarn to take away with me. I can't find my nostepinne, I know I can do it without but it is incredibly frustrating not being able to find it.

I have spent an hour unpacking my sewing corner bit by bit - can't find it at all .

Really hope it hasn't been thrown away, other than admiring it when it arrived and thinking it was bigger than I expected I can't remember seeing it.

Phew - I have just searched the recycling bin, and there it was, at the bottom (2 weeks old I guess) in the box, wrapped in green tissue paper.

A very narrow escape, I work from home and started working at 6am this morning, remembered that I hadn't put the bin out at 7:45. I wasn't dressed, the rain was torrential and I made an executive decision not to get dressed and drag the bin 100yds to the road because we are going away for two weeks in a day or so and I figured I would be no worse off!

It would seem that sometimes being lazy pays .

I must order myself a swift from somewhere. I did order one from Doodlestop in about January, but although it was delivered twice it was never delivered to me, at which point they stopped responding to my emails, so I still don't have one.