Features:

  • CENTER-PULL YARN BALL,our yarn winder creates yarn balls with the string that can be pull from the center, making your knitting sessions convenient and neat.
  • ULTRA HEAVY DUTY, our yarn winder is constructed from 3-millimeter-thick steel with rust-resistant powder 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 enough to handle high-speed winding, soft enough to ensure the gear noise is at an absolute 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.
Far superior to the little plastic ball winders

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.

Don't hesitate to buy this

First let me say never, ever buy a Boye Electric Ball Winder. I did much to my regret as it died after winding 6 balls. Since I didn't use it every day I lost the ability to return it. On the other hand this one arrived yesterday afternoon and I've already wound 4 perfect cakes of yarn. Normally I don't wind all of my yarn, but my WIP is a striped baby blanket. I was worried that it would not clamp onto my table, which is made out of butcher block, but the clamp goes to 2 1/2 inches. The winder worked like a charm once I figured out how to use it properly. I called Stanwood to suggest that they include better pictures in their instructions. They were very nice on the phone so I hope they do provide clearer instructions in the future. If I had come back to Amazon and looked at the picture here, I would have put the distal arm (as they call it) on the right way. I had it to the side instead of the back so the yarn would wind a few inches the tangle. The sales rep was surprised when I told him what I did. He thought it would only go one way, but you are fastening it with a wing nut so it will turn in any direction. The next problem I had was threading the yarn. It should come from the back and then go into the rotating arm from the back. After that you put the end in the slot on the spool. I found that making a knot in the end of the yarn kept it in place while winding. I didn't find that the winding was too tight, but I was going fairly slow. The cakes were beautiful. If you think the winding is too tight, there is an adjustment you can make. Please don't hesitate to buy this. If you have problems, you can call them on the phone for help. As others have said it would be nice to have spools for 4 oz and another for larger hanks of yarn. This is just a minor annoyance. The stupid Boye would only wind 4 oz and I had it jam when winding chunky yarn. The Stanwood will not do this so you have options. As you can tell from this review, I'm happy with this product

Definitely Recommended!

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.

Worth every penny...

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.

Highly recommend this yarn Winder

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! 😄

love it, even with one complaint

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.

A+ experience!

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.

Best Choice Ever!!

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.

So easy to use and I love it.

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.

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