Squirrel Cage Swift for Yarn Winding

Squirrel Cage Swift, originally uploaded by confections.

My Mom bought this squirrel cage swift for me for my recent birthday. We found it at a local antique mall and I bowed to its beauty. It is used to hold loose yarn skeins for winding into center-pull balls (yarn cakes). It can also be used to form those skeins directly from handspun on the spinning wheel.

I have a functional umbrella yarn swift (or two!), but I had read about the versatility and adjustability of the squirrel cage variety and had one on my wish list. Serendipity led us to find it at the local antique mall during my Mom's recent visit and her generosity brought it home to my little fiber arts studio for me to play with. Thank you, Mom!

It is shown here holding a cotton skein that I handpainted in a weaving class a while back. This will be the weft; I have a similarly handpainted warp. I'm going to dress one of my table looms and weave a shawl, just allowing the interlacing of the handpainted skeins to create a one-of-a-kind pattern in the cloth.