We have worked with so many different swifts throughout the years. As a yarn store we get more than enough experience, we tried the squirrel cage (needed to keep replacing parts) not so good, the umberella, ok but not great and now we have tested the Windmill Winder for about 4 months. Guess what? - it's great. It stands on the floor with a cutout for your ball winder, stand back and begin winding. The balance is perfect and it can handle small skeins and large skeins at the turn of a couple of knobs and the best part is it self balances, we don't have to have each arm symetrically aligned. The one we are using now is made of oak but as it is hand made to order you can get it in variety of other woods so as to match your decor. I think this is my product of the year.
