Honestly this is the best choice when it comes to yarn winders. I've tried others and they just do not hold up. Yes you need to slow down and your first cake will be tight. I would highly recommend winding it a second time to have a less snug cake that makes it easier to work with. The second wind is always smoother so take the time to make things easier on yourself later.

I searched several yarn winders and read the reviews. After looking I decided to spend the extra money to try this one. The larger size was a must for larger skeins of yarn. I did decide to make a few rolls out if the larger skiens.
I was very pleased when it came, very easy to assemble. It says to hook it to a board, but clamped it to a tray table. It rolls the yarn into great balls of yarn. My craft room has become a very organized yarn place. I always hated crocheting a project and have to stop for tangled yarn. If you want a great yarn winder, then this one will do the trick. I am glad I paid the higher price for this one, instead of the cheaper one. I don't believe it would hold up like this one has.

This is a great yarn winder. I've had it for six months or so and I've had no problems with it. With it I've wound over a hundred cakes of all different sizes, textures, and weights. It produces excellent, center-pull cakes which sit perfectly flat. The cakes are great for use and for display as they stack beautifully and sturdily. Smaller cakes come out a bit less cylindrical and are harder to stack/display but they still have all of the use-ease benefits. Over time, as you use up the yarn in a cake, the cake will sort of wilt, but even as a cake wilts, I've never had a problem with tangling. It is a good idea to be gentle with wilting cakes and to rewind them immediately after you finish the project so that they can be tight and secure against tangling.

During use, the winder WILL rub lint off the yarn. It won't be much if you're just winding one cake and then putting the winder away. If you do many cakes right in a row, you'll see the residue all over your table. It's a good idea to move electronics and away from the winder when it's in use, to avoid getting a bunch of lint up inside your keyboards and what-have-you.

There is a bit of a learning curve to these winders. Experiment with different tensions for different yarns. Some wind better tight, some wind better loose. I've noticed two primary factors which effect the tension choice you make: stretchyness and slipperyness. Both stretchy and slippery yarn wind up better with low tension. 100% cotton yarn, for example winds up best with high tension. It has minimal slippage and stretch, and you end up with an incredibly dense, sturdy cake if you use a good amount of tension. I recommend that you take your time when you're first using the winder--don't wind too fast. Tangles can happen--it's difficult to describe but you can end up with yarn wrapped up in the gears if you're not careful---and if you're winding really fast, the tangle can get massively out of control. I don't think this is a problem with the winder itself--I doubt you could make a tangle-proof winder. You just need to practice and go slow until you get a good sense of the winding process.

I purchased this winder after buying a smaller (cheaper) one. The smaller winder had a hard time with certain yarns--specifically slippery/silky yarns, specifically Caron Simply Soft. The yarn would just slip off the cake as I was winding and turn into a tangled mess no matter the tension. I happen to have a LOT of Simply Soft in my stash, so the smaller winder just didn't do the job for me. This winder is able to handle the the job the smaller winder was not. (It's worth mentioning that it's still a little bit tricky to get Simply Soft to wind up. I have to wind it very loosely, or run the risk of slippage.)

I also happen to have a lot of Caron One Pound in my stash. One Pound comes in a huge skein (one pound), so it also wasn't ideal for the smaller winder. Although I love this winder, I am still forced to split my One Pound skeins into two (sometimes three, depending on how tightly I wind it) cakes. This isn't a huge problem for me since I know how to join yarn invisibly, and since most of the projects I embark on don't require an entire pound of yarn.

The media could not be loaded. Why didn't I buy one of these sooner? Once I got it put together and found a table suitable for the clamp, it was a breeze. Other videos never showed the other skein of yarn being wound from, so I wanted to show you that. I just put it in a box with the yarn that's coming out of the center of the skein facing upwards, and didn't even have to touch it except to turn the winding arm. As you can see, it makes a beautiful center pull ball that will be very easy to use without any tangling. I also wondered how people kept track of what the skein was after they wound it on the winder, but I figured this one out. You can use your label with a little bit of blue painters tape. It doesn't stick to the yarn too much, and when you just have a little bit of leftover yarn, you still have the label to go with your scrap yarn. I guess if you were winding up one of those giant "Pound of Love" skeins, it would make more than one ball, SO you could just put the blue painter's tape only, and write the brand, color, and weight of the yarn on the tape. That way, when you're trying to do a scrapbuster, you will have the information you need to match the yarn type and weight. I really like my new yarn balk winder, y'all! Treat yourself and buy one. You won't regret it.

This yarn winder is easy to use and makes organizing your yarn stash fun. The larger size will work for the larger skeins.