Swiftly winds the swift

So I've been wanting a swift for some time to make winding skeins of yarn into balls a lot easier. It's tough to get someone to sit still and hold the yarn, and draping the skein across chair backs only kind of works. Still, I balked at spending $70 or $80 on a device that I didn't use all that often when chair backs do kind of work.

Then someone on Ravelry clued me in to this fellow who makes very simple swifts from hardwoods and sells them in the $25-$30 range on eBay, under the seller's name of cbgerstner. Now that I could justify! I dashed over to eBay and ordered me a lovely solid oak swift! (Later when I found out the seller sells on Etsy through the Scotts Mountain Crafts store, I wished I'd bought it there. Etsy's fees are much better for artisans, I find.)

So above is a picture of my new oak swift with a skein of Terra yarn on it just for a pose. Today I needed to wind a ball of Manos Silk for a new project on the needles. A lovely spinny thing on the floor attracted Edison's attention and he came over to inspect:


And to get a closer sniff and even a taste, but swifts are not chew toys:


Oh, what a lovely spinny thingy, that goes around and around and around...


And around some more...

And soon we came to the end of the skein and the end of the fun. The swift works beautifully. Edison approves, and I am pleased.