Big Ol' Ballwinder
When you buy yourself a spinning wheel, you think to yourself: How cool, I can buy this one machine and I can spin. I don't need any more equipment. Just me and some bobbins and the swift and ballwinder I already have from all that knitting. You might even tell your significant other how when you buy your wheel, you won't need anything else. You've reached the apogee of fiber equipment. You're good to go for the forseeable future.
Yeah, right.
My spinning wheel has turned out to be a tool I absolutely love, but it's also turned out to be the sort of tool that begets the purchase of other tools. Want to work on more than one spinning project at once? Time to get yourself a bunch more bobbins. Want to spin a bit faster and avoid having to change hooks. You need that WooLee Winder. Better throw in a few more bobbins for that, too. Tried out that big ol' plying head and made a big ol' skein? Better hope you have a good sized swift. And that lovely plastic Royal ballwinder that was always sufficient for commercial knitting yarn. Heh. It's probably not going to cut it.
In the summer/fall I started to look for a ballwinder that could handle jumbo-sized skeins. I really only came across a couple of options and I figured I would end up with the Strauch ball winder that I had seen at several fiber festivals. So I headed off to the Fold to see if Toni had them for sale. She had the Fricke electric motor driven version, but I wasn't really interested in a motorized ball winder. Then she told me that Nancy's Knit Knacks was going to introduce a ball winder and it looked like a good machine. Could I wait a little bit?
Well, there are very few ball winder emergencies in my house, and after watching the video for the NKK Ball Winder (click the link and look in the right sidebar) I was intrigued. It looked like a lot of engineering had gone into their machine, and it had a lot of flexibility to go along with the ability to wind big balls. Not only that, but it was a heck of a lot more attractive than the Strauch/Fricke options (this is my opinion... clearly tool beauty is in the eye of the beholder). When Toni finally got hers in and I got to try it out, I placed my order on the spot. As a woman whose father, brother, husband and brother-in-law are all engineers, I'm pretty good at telling when I've found a good piece of equipment that has the potential to last me a life time.
My new toy arrived at my house just after Christmas. Unfortunately, I haven't had too many opportunities to put it through its paces yet, but every time I use it I get the same big goofy grin on my face that my husband does when he installs a new high powered graphics card in his home theatre computer and plugs in a first person shooter. This, my friends, is, I think, my forever ball winder. It can wind balls of 1 pound and larger, it has a smooth mechanism, the yarn guide is adjustable, and it has the flexibility to be upgraded to a motorized machine should I want to go that route at some point in time. This is the sort of toy that makes me want to pull all the yarn out of my closet and turn it into center pull balls.
And I'm absolutely sure that after this, I won't need any more spinning support tools.
Really.
Well, at least not for a little while.
A new ballwinder is a thing of beauty! Congrats on your purchase :)
Thank you for this review! I had been *looking* at that big ballwinder and thinking about it, but now I will go and order one, straightaway!
Happy Winding!
That's some serious ball winder you've got there!
Thanks for reviewing this! It's going on my wish list . . .
I have an older Fricke/Strauch, and I've never liked it. The handle winds in the horizontal plane, and that's tiring. I like the vertical winding of yours much better.
Shhhhhh! My wheel is on it's way and hubbo still thinks that's the only equipment I'll need for a while. I, of course, know better but let's keep that a secret for another week or 2.
That is a serious ball winder! And lovely to look at, to boot.
Very cool... I have just entered the world of the ball winder!
Thanks for the review - I'm shopping for a new ball winder and the NKK model was on my list of possible options, except the price seemed prohibitive. But you seem to be happy with it, so I may just give it a shot.
now that's a seriously lovely ball winder.
Are you suuuurrreee that you don't need any more tools?? (big grin here)
Thank you so much for this info. After I purchased my wheel I got a Mama Bear swift since it doubles as a skein winder from the bobbin AND a swift, but I still haven't found a ball winder that fits the bill for me so I've been winding on my pretend Nostepinde still. I've had to wind over 600 yards of laceweight by hand! I'll look into this big ballwinder now since it looks like what I need as well. Thanks!
That's one mistake I'll never make again -- telling my DH that now I will NEVER need anything else for knitting. It's never true, and he always calls me on it.
Until you decide that you need a drum carder...
Uh-oh . . . I think I'm in trouble now!
Thanks for the info. I'm already drooling. I think I'll put this on my list right after the three-drum Patrick Green Supercard.
What a great review and a great ball winder. Thanks for the information.
And do you have a skein winder yet, or are you still faffing about with a niddy noddy? We're talking quantum leaps here.
Sorry to tell you that you still need: combs, drum carder, skein winder, yardage counter.......then the yarn is a bit too much for just knitting and you end up buying a loom....then the shuttles, warping board, warping mill.....and it goes on from there :)
Don't you just love it?
That thing is pretty darn sweet. I now look askance at my plastic one....
Gonna have to get myself one---about the time you break down and get a drum carder. Oh, well. I still have the pleasure of letting the hubby know his toys are still more expensive than mine--he collects power tools. ;)
Yeah, that's what we all say. I've adopted a new motto - not "I will get this one great tool/gadget and it will make my life complete," but "tools make the woman." Whaddya think?
Heh, and to think I'm still working my way up to the plastic Royal ballwinder! I've managed to convince myself up til this point that winding balls of yarn is meditative and soothing. I think I'm just not starting enough projects. (When will you ever hear me say that again?)
That being said, I think a bitty ballwinder is just coming up on my shopping list. No time like the present.
I'm interested in buying laptops and other computer related equipment to sell
on Ebay. I know a lot of people make money selling things like clothing, but where can I
read about truly whether this is a decent "side business" to a person's day job?
Would ebay even have "success stories? Also, I'm quite sure the much newer models
with [url=http://www.laptop-guide.biz] core duo would be better for "flipping" [/url]
I'll have to take a look.
Don't forget the bobbin winder. And the storage bobbins. The yarn meter MAY be optional.
Oh yes, and another wheel?
I wondered why the Lamb's Pride you were using in the post after this one was wound into a a different skein from its original one. :) Know it all makes sense!
Suzanne
Looks like a great tool! Thanks for the pointer. I love big, extra-large skeins of yarn (mostly because I hate joining new yarn).