This little cute guy was, as all other my aseesories, a part of my last lot of knitting machine purchased during an estate sale. It has seen its ways and was probably working hard jugding by a small chip on its cone.
Howeer, I was very curious to test it and compare to other yarn winders since I have never seen one like this before either in real life or on posts related to hand and machine knitting. It is obviously vintage since these yarn winders are no longer in production and nobody makes such designs.
I was pleasantly surprized how heavy its base was. At first, I though it was the only way it would sit on the table – no other support is needed. After several uncesuful attempts to wind the yarn in this way, I realized that it is indeed supposed to be attached to the table.. the reason I did not realize it quickly enough because the slot for the clamp was not obvious and the base was so heavy. Also, all the clamps that came with that lot were in one large bag – who knows which machine they were for.
However, not all clamps were suitable for this little guy. The clamp shown above has a little knotch sticking out and it did not slide easily into the slot.
However, I was able to find a clamp with the slightly elongated top part – I suspect the clamp for silver reed or studio machine. And it worked perfectly: it slid in without problems and the extra length helped to hold this winder stronger.
The device has a yarn guide that moves in a wide range and guides the yarn to be wound evenly across the cone.
Overall I was pleased. Below is how it is compared to other ones.
Pros and cons:
(+) The design is simple.
(+) Straightforward usage.
(+) can be attached to any table with a metal clamp available with almost every knitting machine.
(+) even though there is no groove to insert the yarn for extra tension, the yarn cake/ball does not slide (like on my KnitPicks Yarn winder) in the middle of the winding. I found this a huge advantage of this Silver Reed winder.
(+) compact
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Cons:
(-) I wished it had a little groove to attach the yarn like other cones do so the yarn does not slide and it is easy to find the yarn end inside the cake.
(-) the cone is not detachable.
(-) Although I did not specifically test it, other cones probably will not fit on this winder and might prevent yarn guide from sliding freely.
(-) the size of the yarn ball might be limited to 4 oz. When the cake becomes too large, the yarn guide does not slide easily and the cake start slipping and skipping.
(-) does not seem to be capable of winding the yarn into cones
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Watch how it works in my you tube channel.
https://youtu.be/TDeg5UnBHzc
