Swiftly
Free!
People around here sometimes put things in boxes on the side of the road if they want to get rid of things that they think are too good to be thrown out. Look what we found – an umbrella swift!
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Skein
It is an extremely useful tool if you want to wind yarn into balls without enlisting the help of two chairs, or a second pair of willing hands…
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Untwist
…as it happens, we have several skeins of Dorset sheep wool from Mayne Island that need to be wound into balls!
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untie
First you settle the skein onto the ribs, and expand the spokes until it is a tight fit. Then you have to untie the loop…
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Wind
…and then start winding up the yarn into a ball…
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Twirl
…the swift spins round as the yarn comes off – Coriander thinks it makes a delightful merry-go-round!
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roll
Floradora is concentrating on rolling up the balls of yarn…
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Two so far
…they have two balls wound up so far – ready for me to start the next knitting project!
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Quimper Hittys 
Seems so enjoyable, Beautiful photographs as always. Thank you dear Hitty Lady, Love, nia
You are welcome, nia, I love to do these different parts of the knitting. I used to be the extra hands when my mother needed to wind wool.
Yay! What a great find!
I know! Crazy!!! All intact too, though some of the strings were broken so I had to replace them.
What a fantastic find indeed!
I was so pleased – first that it was lying there needing a home, and also that I could use it and have always wanted one (though not enough to go buy a new one!)
What fun! Your treasure hunt turned into carnival gaiety and work done with a big F(UN)!
Big Fun for sure – Coriander thought it was hilarious to twirl around until she got dizzy and almost fell off!
Awesome. Possibly the best ever result from skip diving (I know,not really skip diving!)
Yes indeed! The things on the side of the road are just one step away from the skip, I was glad to save it from an ignominious fate!
What a find! The ladies are hard at work winding the yarn!
We are pretty excited about it! A few more skeins to wind up and then the needles will be out and flashing!
great find, to bad it didn’t come with a ball winder 🙂
A Ball-winder would be handy, but I like doing it too.
I bet the thrower had no idea what it was, or how to mend it, so it went from the ‘too hard’ basket onto the roadside. What a great find!
All it took was a piece of string to mend it! I suppose the thrower-out was not a textile person…but I am and so it was meant to be – eh?
what a great find! I confess that it seems everything having to do with yarn is quite complicated. I do love the merry go round aspect of your new swift.
And the merry aspect of the swift is Coriander’s favourite thing about it! It does me good to see the Hittys having fun.
I remember my father sitting holding skeins of yarn for my mother to ball – I was deemed too small and fidgety! I wonder when it became the norm for yarn to be sold in balls not skeins? And why did my mother not have a swift? I would have found many uses for it both then and now!
I wonder why balls and not skeins…perhaps people wanted to buy smaller amounts? Two hands works well, but the merry-go-round is definitely more exciting!!!