Some time ago I started a project, using laceweight mohair, which I blogged about. Its take 6 months to finish the first skein, which was wound into a ball by friends, and now I’m ready for the next one. I’ve been chasing around trying to find a wool winder I can borrow and also considering using a nostepinne but at 400 yards of yarn in a skein, I’d be there for some time doing that.

To cut a long story short, my boyfriend ordered me a surprise wool winder so I was off to a flying start – but I don’t have a swift (and I don’t plan on winding wool often enough to justify buying one as they aren’t cheap). So I googled and found this home-made swift on instructables – and decided I could make my own. Our lazy susan (5 quid from Ikea) is wooden so I didn’t really want to tape onto it, so instead I found a spare piece of MDF and clamped it to the lazy susan. With two coat hangers cable-clipped to the MDF, I was all set.

It actually worked really really well, I had the two remaining skeins wound into balls in no time at all and I can carry on with my project, which is growing, if slowly! Look, I think I’m half way there: