DIY Yarn Swift: desparate measures

“They say necessity is the mother of Invention.
Don’t know who the father is though… probably Remorse.”
~ Red Green

Well, I’m not sure about Remorse (since I’m actually fairly pleased with this) but I really couldn’t say what fathered this ugly brainchild of mine. I blame the combination of zero socks-in-progress, too much sock-yarn in skeins, and not nearly enough tea early on Friday* morning.

Should you, too, be one of the many yarncrafters out there bereft of ball winder and yarn swift, and if you (like myself) are too cheap/lazy/lack-of-caffeine-addled to make a prettier swift like this one for yourself, them you too can make a swift like the one pictured above!

Gather up 4 wire coat-hangers, some duct tape, and a wine bottle. Bend the hanger’s hanger-parts straight, then down to a right angle. Duct-tape ’em together with a decent blob o’tape, stick em’ in the wine bottle’s neck, and see how it spins. Bend up the coat hangers so that your skein of yarn won’t fall off the contraption. Adjustments are made with the application of more tape and brute force, as needed.

Now grab yourself your “nostepinne” (in my case, a bit of dowel with an elastic around the middle, to secure the initial yarn-tail), pull up your chair, and commence with winding!

That’s how I went from this…

…To this…

..with no tangled messes! (Remember the Sea Wool? Never again, say I!) Yeah, it ain’t pretty, but it works.

*I took an extra-long weekend — it was very good!