I bought this for my daughter and she loves it! It works very well, and she couldn't be happier with it.

I've been doing this all by hand so I am very happy to have a tool that can help! Unfortunately part of the plastic on the base of the part the yarn wraps around has broken. It still works fine, i just have to be very gentle.

The media could not be loaded. As others have mentioned, it's cheaply made with plastic parts, but it's also less than $20, so 🤷ðŸ¾"â'€ï¸. It is what it is. That being said, it's fantastic!! I made several cakes, including a really large one, using a 16oz skein that I wound just to see if the winder could handle it. I was able to use the machine for about 90% of the skein until it got to the edge, at which point I finished it off by hand. I am impressed! I don't really expect this machine to last very long, as it is fairly flimsy, but this is my first winder and it was somewhat of an impulse buy so when it breaks, I'll probably spend a little more for one with a better build, but this was definitely a good buy. I suggest holding the yarn strand to give it a little tension as it winds. The cakes turned out much neater and I didn't have any more issues once I started doing that.

Initially, I purchased this yarn baller to replace a previous one that had let me down. The old baller would lurch every so often and just couldn't get the job done. It also had a horizontal alignment, which meant that it had to use its metal arm that waved back and forth to move the yarn in a pattern to have it create the cake, which seemed to only add complexity to the balling process. As hard as I tried, I was never able to get past 15 turns without having to start over due to the yarn skipping off the main ball either on the top or bottom.

After doing some research online, it became clear that many experienced home weavers used a different style of baller then the one I had. What I noticed them using was a vertical style that had a stationary pole for feeding the yarn onto the center pole which moved in an oval pattern. I was skeptical at first, but it seemed like the best option based on other weavers' opinions, so I decided to give it a try.

To my surprise and relief, the baller works like a charm. After setting it up cautiously, I began cranking slowly and soon surpassed the 15 turn mark with ease. I gradually increased my speed, and the baller kept up no problem, quickly balling up 190 yards of yarn. Keep in mind that you need to keep an even tension as it creates the cake.

This is an absolute must-have for anyone looking to make yarn cakes with ease. I was so impressed with my purchase that I was eager to return the previous model I got from the hobby store.

As a bonus, the product came with stitch markers, needles, and row markers. Although I already had some of these, I used the stitch markers to hold down my yarn ball's tail ends, making my process even more manageable.

I was looking for a yarn ball winder, since I've started purchasing yarns in hanks. I saw some beautiful expensive ones on various yarn/supply sites, but was not budgeted for a large expense. So I gave this one a try. Happy that I did. It works fine, and I would have had an even better experience had I watched the instruction video LOL. The Winder comes with an assortment of stitch markers, tapestry needles, and cable thingies, which is really nice. I just now used it for the first time, to wind up yarn from a couple of unfinished projects and false starts. I frogged the pieces and fed them into the Winder, and now I have a nice amount of neat yarn to complete the project I've decided upon.

I don't know how much happier I would be if I purchased an expensive winder, and maybe one day I will, but I am looking forward to lots of winding and knitting with this purchase.