A Winding Fool!

 Wouldn't you know it, the jumbo ball winder arrived the day after my last post!  If I'd known that would be all it would take to get it delivered, I would have posted a long time ago!

Anyway, right after I received it I set it up on my kitchen table to wind my wool/silk skein.  The winder works great with a few tiny caveats:  it is much harder to turn the crank handle than it is with my cheap plastic ball winder, and the metal yarn guide to the left of the shaft that holds the ball touches the winding mechanism when yarn is going through the eye, so I had to use the thumb of my left hand to keep the guide from touching it.  I also had to push the yarn down with my left fingers so that it went through the bottom of the eye of the guide; otherwise the ball starts winding much further up the shaft.  Anyhoo, here are a couple of pictures to show the set-up and result.  (Please ignore the background clutter).

The new winder with freshly wound ball o' squishy goodness;

And here is the "winding station."

All in all, it worked out well, except for a tiny bit of handspun that wrapped itself around the shaft of the skeiner; about 7 inches had to be sacrificed.  Next up - warping!