Swiftly winding....

A few years ago I went home to visit my mother. She gave me a whole bunch of my grandmother's knitting, sewing, and tatting supplies. Among the magic that were in the piles of stuff was a ball winder. Now at the time I was living with my aunt. That same weekend she went to a yarn and wool festival and bought herself a yarn winder but also a swift. Now more and more yarn companies are selling their yarn the old fashion way, in hanks. A hank is when you take the yarn off the bobbin and wrap it around a kniddy knoddy (this will bring up a whole different blog post.) The result when you take it off a kniddy knoddy  is a hank that you then curl in on itself before you wind it into a ball to use it. With the creation of massive yarn companies this has fallen by the way side but dyers and artisan spinners still sell it in this form.

the swifter I asked for at Christmas

What happens is you take your yarn hank and place it on your swift, and it holds it for you while you go through the pain of winding it. If you have a ball winder you may get it done even faster. Now I have wound yarn with out a swift, to put it simply, it was like trying to eat ice cream on a very hot day. You think when you start it is a good idea, but by the end you are still sweaty, but now sticky and wishing you had asked for a cup and not a cone. First you start in the spread knee position, holding the yarn on your knees as you wind but then you are stuck in the position. As your ball becomes bigger the yarn around your knees has slid off with you noticing. Now instead of a some what organized hank you have the biggest knot you have ever seen in your life. You put down the ball to fix the hank and the ball not only rolls off your lap but under the table and across the room where the dog discovers it. You get up to retrieve the ball after putting the even more knotted hank down. What should have been a 10 minute winding process turns into a three hour epic project. If the yarn was under $15 dollars you might go get scissors to get yourself out of the mess. If the yarn is over $25 you will continue to muffle curses under your breath as you try to straighten out the mess. If you are single you might start thinking it is time to date again, so you have someone who can hold the hank for you. If you are married, you decide you might sit though his grumbling of he has better things to do for 30 minutes then to ever debate doing this by yourself again. If your really smart you ask for a swift for Christmas (after debating the maybe I should find a human one).... which is what I did.

Mid 19th century swift at Lowell Mills National Historical Park

So I received my swift, I have already in 3 months wound 6 balls of yarn, I love my new toy. Now here is the thing the idea of swifts goes back centuries. They are often seen in varying shapes and styles in the back of paintings, and prints through time. Spinners use them to stretch the yarn to make sure the spin holds. Also they have been used to measure yarn. They will count how many times the yarn goes around the swift to know if they have enough for what ever they will be using it for. Weavers use swifts to measure their warping threads, if they don't have a warping board, to make sure they are all even.

Some come on stands, often called Yarn weasels. These ones would often make a popping sound as you spun them so you would know how many yards you had completed. Others were umbrella style and could be easily folded up. Mine is two bars that come apart and you put pegs in it to hold your yarn at various sizes. It can also be screwed to the wall.

19th century metal yarn swift.

So here is to the tool that makes my spinning, knitting and (if I ever learn how to weave) weaving life easier, the swiftly swift. (I know bad pun.)