This gizmo arrived today - a yarn ball winder (from here). I've been wanting one of these for a really long time: there are so many skeins to wind, so many unruly yarn balls to sort out (like the one in the pic above). I ordered this last month so I have been very patiently waiting to crank the handle and start sorting things out. Oh the irony: more clutter for less clutter. It's a viscous yarn cycle.


It is so simple to set up and operate. You jig all the bits together, secure it to a table with the built-in clamp, and feed the yarn through the metal eyelet doo-hickey. Hey presto: yarn cakes. You're supposed to use a swift with this, which looks a bit like a fabric-less umbrella that holds your skeins, but I couldn't bring myself to buy another item that needs to be stored somewhere. I'll make do with some chairs for now, I think.