I bow down to the swift

#1

A few days ago, I put in an order for a swift at JoAnn Fabrics online. (I was so excited to be buying it 50% off!) Everything’s fine, I’m excited…and then we get an email yesterday saying the swift is out of stock for the next few weeks, and they’ve cancelled our order. :wall:

It wasn’t listed as out of stock when I bought it, and it still isn’t. Who knows why?

Well, I decided that I couldn’t wait a few more weeks and then have to pay even more for the thing, so my dad and I went off on a treasure hunt. We found a lazy susan turntable at Home Depot and an expandable drying rack at Bed, Bath, and Beyond; then we came home and my dad went to work. He chopped off parts of the drying rack, screwed things together, and voila! a lovely, $15 swift.

Here it is, with some KP sock yarn on it. The memories of my tangled first hank were still fresh in my mind when I began to wind, but the swift was fabulous, and I ended up with a nice, neat ball in about 3 minutes. (Compared to my first one, which took about an hour of untangling.)

Hooray for my dad, and for Julie, whose year-and-a-half old post I got this idea from.

#2

Hmmm…I’m thinking “little business…” :teehee:

It looks really, really great! What creative people! And how nice of your dad to do that for you!!!

I sure could have used it yesterday when I wound up spending 5 hours to untangle my first ever unwound skein.

#3

Great idea, Jess!! :cheering:

Does the expandable part still expand and collapse??

#4

Does the expandable part still expand and collapse??

Indeed it does! That was the hardest part in making the swift: finding something that was expandable. We searched the entire store before finding the drying rack; our original goal had been an expandable coat rack. This worked just as well, once we cut off the other half :teehee:

#5

Heee! Yours is sooo much prettier than mine was! :rofl:

#6

I just pulled out my home-made swift for the first time and I mde the crossbar too small! Cue five hours at least of untangling (no exaggeration). The beautiful wool is ready for Pomatomi though!

Sarah

#7

That is SO AWESOME!!! :notworthy: :inlove: You guys did a GREAT JOB!!! I LOVE the idea of the collapsible/expandible feature to tailor fit whatever size hank you have–who would’ve thought to use a drying rack! You guys are so clever! I think my husband may be busy in a few weeks…! :twisted:

I typically wind skeins by draping the hank around my knees, but it’s really hard that way…if I want/need to stop winding to get up and do something, I can’t–I’m stuck (not a good thing if you need to go to the bathroom mid-wind! :rofl: ). This would be such a nice convenience. Thanks for posting!

#8

Clever, very clever.

So, maybe all these clever knitters are clever because they have clever parents. Maybe it’s a clever gene that presents itself very aggressively amongst knitter’s families. This could keep a geneticist busy for while. Is there a clever gene?

Joe

#9

NOPe~ I think it’s just simple necessity s the mother of invention~!! :pout: :teehee: