Nancy's Knit Knacks Heavy Duty Ball Winder

I Have already gone through 3 of those plastic yarn ball winders. The gears keeping breaking in them sooner or later. They are noisy with an annoying clicking sound as well.This Yarn Ball winder (although it is a little bit too pricey in my opinion) is wonderful. First of all, it is hand crafted in the USA.It's almost all made of wood and the craftsman did an excellent job. The pieces are are so well sanded, finished off to feel really smooth in your hands. The wheel turns effortlessly, and hardly makes a sound. The gears are metal and will last almost forever. Every part on it is so well constructed compared to the plastic. kind. Plus, you have more options on it as for tension , size ball, and where you wish the tension arm to be located. The clamps for attaching it to the table will not brake off like the plastic ones do, and once it is on it doesn't loosen until you take it off.My yarn room is in a cabin and this yarn ball winder fits right into the decor.It's sooo attractive, I don't even have to take it down and put it away.I know the price is higher then most, but believe you me, if you purchase one of these, you will never ever have to buy a junky plastic one again. The money you spend on all those junky plastic ones you could have bought this one and hand it down to your children some day.If you do a lot of crocheting or knitting and need to make balls or cones instead of struggling with all those knots. (I have no patience for them grr)Then this is the one for you!!!!!!! I love mine!!!!!!!

Beautifully made. Heavy duty. There is a learning curve that I have not completely mastered. Sometimes I have trouble getting the ball started. Balls can look lopsided. Sometimes the yarn wraps over or under the ball. It is adjustable but I don't have the knack yet.

Wow! I had no idea what a difference having a "professional" ball winder was going to make to my attitude about winding center pull skeins. It is so much easier. For years I lived with the plastic one that was constantly giving me problems. I had trouble with it "jumping" off of the surface I clamped it to, it was very grimy from years of use, and sometimes the yarn escaped from the ball and created a few warps above or below the wound ball.My first reaction was it's BIG! and it is. Very little assembly was required -- I had to attached the hand crank and fasten the screws to the clamps. Then I had to insert the post that guides the yarn to the center post the holds the wound ball. I directly attached the yarn to my swift and started to turn. So nice not to have those little weeny wrist movements and instead have big sweeping turns using your whole arm. Winds in a lot less cranks and is capable of making very large balls.Live it up! This will last your entire knitting career and is worth the investment.

If you only knit worsted weight yarn, you're in luck, this will wind a half pound neatly. However, lighter yarns are beyond this thing's capacity to wind neatly. From the get-go. I rarely use this as a result. After a year of fiddling, I still can't achieve a neat cake of sport, fingering or lace yarn. I am incredibly disappointed and honestly don't know what I can do to remedy the problem. I read/followed the directions. I've tried winding extra slowly, I've tried moving the adjustable yarn guide closer and father, to the left and right (30, 90 degrees), still no luck. The resulting cakes have round 'corners', long loose strands top and especially bottom because the yarn slides off the cake-ball with no crisp corners to hold it in place. It slides down & wraps around the center bobbin instead. ARGH! In desperation, I've started to stick pins in the growing balls to approximate the corners that should be made. I have to move them constatly to the new outer 'edges' to keep the yarn winding around the main body not slipping to the bobbin to make a mess. I miss my old Royal so much. For the money, I expected flawless performance.I would never let a friend waste her money on this!Update, July 2017:Based on the tips given in the coment below, I attempted to wind a 100g/@400 yd. hank of Madelinetosh Merino Light, single ply, all wool, fingering/sock wt. yarn. I moved the feeder arm, as advised, to the closest position and tightened, put the curly yarn guide at 90 pointing out, followed the written directions by winding a few times and guiding the yarn on the bobbin to the middle. Then I began to wind at a steady rate, not fast not slow, just enough to keep the swift rotating steadily. After a few dozen yards, it formed a rounded ball, and strands were slipping down to the bottom of the bobbin and across the top to become long, loose, dangling strands in the final "ball cake." Still, I kept winding to see if it would improve with more yarn added, but no. The ball got bigger and the strands kept slipping down to the bobbin, not around the yarn. About halfway, I gave up, took the yarn off and re-wound it with my Royal, which formed a fairly clean-cornered cake no loose strands whatsoever. (I found a vintage Royal on eBay, thank God.)This does NOT form a cake with square corners. I'm more frustrated than before.In Sum:According to the instructions, this is carefully calibrated before it's sent to perform properly. I recall this came in a secure box with good packing. I conclude that something was jiggled out of alignment in the shipping or it wasn't aligned before shipping. It simply does not perform as it should.

Way over priced for a HAND operated winder. Splitting a 1000 kilo cone my arm would drop off.

This heavy duty ball winder is worth the cost. It is not only made in America, but the workmanship of this product is excellent. It comes fully assemble with you only having to put the handle and yarn guide on it. You can't go wrong with purchasing this product and the manufacture stands behind their product. The tools for attaching the handle and the clamps were missing when I opened it, so I emailed the manufacture, received a reply within 30 mins. and the missing components were mailed to me the next day. I purchased this ball winder to replace the Boyle electric ball winder which only lasted 6 months before it stopped working. This ball winder has an option of adding an electric motor if you want. Nancy's Knit Knacks promptly sent out my order and the packaging was excellent.