New Ball Winder

I've had this plastic ball winder from Knit Picks (affiliate link) for a few years now. I wanted one (along with the beautiful swift from Knit Picks (affiliate link)) since I borrowed the tools from a friend to wind up some hanks of yarn. The plastic ball winder had started to give me some issues and I was frustrated by it more often than not.

It seems it had slipped some internal gear and wasn't winding correctly. Here is one of the resulting winding sessions. I even took it apart a time or two and just couldn't get the gears to stay meshed. In a fit I went to Amazon and looked at some sturdier ball winders. There aren't very many but one stood out.

That brings me to the Stanwood Needlecraft large ball winder (affiliate link). The reviews were excellent (4.8 stars out of 5 with 750+ reviews is pretty awesome) so I decided to give it a try.

It came in the mail and the next day I sat down to wind some yarn. This thing is as awesome as those reviews indicate. Here you can see 150 grams of cotton yarn wound up with plenty of room for more. I might have been able to get all 300 grams into a single ball, but I thought two 150 gram balls would be easier to fit in a project bag. I'm really happy I decided to upgrade. If you wind more than occasionally, this is a tool you want to add to your tool bag. You might be able to get three of the plastic ones for the price of this one winder, but I don't think I'll never need another winder in my lifetime.

Tools (affiliate links):
Stanwood Needlecraft large ball winder
Knit Picks yarn swift