Thursday 7 March 2013

Review - ChiaGoo Swift

For my birthday, my mum bought me a swift. Well, she bought it from my wishlist and when I thanked her for it, confessed that she had no idea what it was and wondered why she had bought me a box of bits of wood *laughs*

There's a reason I chose this particular swift - I don't really have room or the right furniture for a swift that clamps and folds up, so this one that sits on the tabletop seemed like a perfect solution. I thought it would be handy to write a quick review after my experiences of using it. As I mentioned - it was a birthday present from my mum so it wasn't given to me for reviewing purposes, I just thought it might be of interest ;)

Out of the box



See what my mum meant? *laughs* Assembling the pieces took seconds, and everything fit together beautifully. The only thing that bothers me, and this has more to do with my personal design idiosyncrasies than anything else, is that the wood for the dowels doesn't match the wood of the base. I know they're completely different woods, but I'm picky like that *laughs*


In this picture, it kinda looks like a candelabra, doesn't it?! The woodwork has been done really well, so all the slots line up perfectly and fit together in a solid and pleasing way.


Features

Ok, so it's a swift, which isn't something that has a lot of features, but there are a couple of touches I liked. First, the fact that the holes for the dowels are labelled with skein size - although most of my skeins are a relatively standard size. The numbers are lasered in too, so they won't rub off.



The other feature (I say feature but really it's just a nice touch) is the pads on the base, which is good as I'll mostly be using the swift on top of my coffee table, which is an antique chest and I'm pleased that I don't have to worry about scratches.



In Action


I've used the swift twice now. The first time was very exciting (so exciting that I forgot to take any pictures). I wound the yarn by hand - I decided when putting the swift on my wishlist that I would rather have a swift and wind by hand than have a ball winder and still have to drape the yarn over my knees!

The movement of the swift is really smooth. There were a few times where it stuck slightly, but that was entirely to do with the yarn catching on itself and not the swift.

Anyway, I then decided that I wanted all the toys, and bought myself a ball winder too:


Weird looking things, aren't they?

With this, I was able to wind the yarn much faster than I had by hand, so I was interested to see how the swift would fare. I wound as fast as I possibly could (I may have gotten a little carried away *laughs*) and I had no issues at all with the swift. It span quite happily, and was quite meditative to watch ;)

And I ended up with one of those cute little yarn cakes...


I smooshed it a bit when I took it off the winder, but isn't it neat and tidy anyway? Of course now I want to wind all my yarn and stack it up somewhere, but I will try and restrain myself. For now, at least *laughs*

9 comments:

  1. I LONG for yarn cakes - the two chairs backed together method is getting old. And Chia Goo is just the best needle brand ever, so I can imagine I would like a swift by them very much indeed!

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  2. I like the etching of the skein size on it. I have a Sunflower Swift, which I love, but I do have to guess where to put my pegs. It looks a great birthday gift. Isn't it nice being able to wind a skein in a few minutes?

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  3. What a great gift! Thanks so much for the review. I don't have a swift but now I really want one...

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  4. I have a very similar swift. It was giving me grief for awhile, but I finally got it figured out last week! They are fun!

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  5. You and I have the same ball winder...I think.

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  6. Getting a shift and ball winder is just too much fun, but resist making your whole stash into cakes! I'm glad that you got a solid swift that you can use!

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  7. I got my winder a few weekends ago and was so excited to use it. I improvised a swift out of the bottom of an office chair and some wooden dowels I had scavenged from some weird wall decoration/shelving thingy that I never used. I went a bit crazy with the winder and wound my entire stash over the course of the weekend. It was great fun!

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  8. Your ball winder makes perfect cakes. Mine is a lousy thing I must replace sooner than later.

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  9. A swift and ball winder are total good investments for a knitter! Good for you. I have gotten so much mileage out of mine.

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