:??
Yep, I loooove mine. Even without a ball-winder, it makes winding much, much easier. 
I agree with mascara. Get one!
Brenda, a swift holds a hank of yarn so you can wind it easily into a ball. Typically looks sort of like a wooden umbrella without the fabric.
Mascara, I can’t view your pics. You ended up with a tangled mess, eh? 
I’ve not yet tried a ball winder. I love to wind by hand.
aaah there it is…when i tried to view earlier i wasn’t gettin’ a page
Ah yes, i see the pics now too!
What happened exactly? You tried to wind the yarn into a ball, but it got tangled in the process? :??
Congrats on your pre-wedding ceremony, and the upcoming excitement! :happydance: I was just checking out your gallery. Was that your wedding dress you were trying on? Pretty!
Yes, I tried to wind a hank using the “find a seven-year-old to hold her arms taut in the air while you wind” method, but it ended up a tangled mess. I bought a swift this morning and it’s worth every penny for the quality of life improvement.
Amy, I assume you mean the white dress on my flickr account? Yes, that was going to be my wedding dress–I bought it for $15 at Pike’s Place Market in Seattle, but I fell out of love with it. I felt like it was too baggy and shapeless and I didn’t feel beautiful in it, so I bought a different dress. It’s not like I invested a whole lot in the first one! The new one is really lovely. It’s white with a very flattering scoop neck and thick tank top straps with a sort of empire-y waist. What really sold me on it is that is has bright yellow swiss dot embroidery all over it and picot edging. The yellow is the exact yellow that is my hubby-to-be’s favorite shade of yellow! And of course, I will top it off with my short sleeved I Do shrug!
Thanks for the congrats!
Yes, that’s the gallery I found myself on. Your new dress sounds fabulous. I sewed my own wedding dress and I tried to figure out how to incorporate a bit of yellow in it, but didn’t do it in the end. I love yellow too. I don’t wear it often, but I do love it. 
Enjoy your new yarn swift!
Both of your dresses sound cool…couldn’t find the pictures though
Hey Mascara! Congratulations on your upcoming wedding… sounds wonderful! I love the stuff you’ve made. I was just looking at that shrug this morning but thought the lace pattern might be too hard for me. Will have a relook because it’s really really BEAUTIFUL. Will look fantastic for your wedding.
I was all set to buy a yarn swift (niddy-noddy!!! I love that name)
but then this yarn lady said they never work anyway because they’re unstable. But, they must work somewhat or … why would they keep selling them? What I’m wondering is do you attach yours to the end of a table to keep it stable? Most of them are like that I think but I almost bought one on ebay that was an Italian jobby and it just stood in the middle of the table. I have so many skeins to be wound up in the future… I do it around a chair back (oh the other day I used my kitty’s cat house (the travel thing, hard case) and it fit perfect and then my cat Toisie jumped inside and would try and grab the yarn each time it went by, that was FUN).
Did you pay a lot? cheers, Vic
My swift hooks w/a screw down clamp to a tabletop or whatever you choose. Another good thing to put the yarn on if you don’t have a swift, is the arms of an office chair…they are almost human!
pat.
Actually, a niddy-noddy is different from a swift. Here are instructions on making a niddy-noddy: http://www.doctordirt.com/blog/niddy.html
As far I understand, a niddy noddy is for making hanks, and a swift is for unwinding hanks. 
Wow, :shock: I thought a niddy noddy and a yarn swift were the same thing!!! Where the heck did I get that from?
duh
Hm. Ok. Thanks…