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Story of a Swift 



When my friend Bunny visited town back in september she brought me some pretty cool gifts. Did i tell you about these already? They are the cream of the crop of knitting-related gifts gleaned from the English countryside. There is the book The Theory and Practice of Wool Dyeing by C. L. Bird. This book is not simply a primer on dyeing wool, but is more like an organic chemistry book. For example, it goes into depth on the activation energies of different dyeing systems, and even includes diffusion coefficients for different types of fibers and dyes. wow.



One of the other gifts she brought was a wooden swift that she had picked up somewhere. it was pretty small and rickety and I swear she said something about just using it for firewood if no one wanted it. the little retractable arms would extend, but they wouldn't stay out and you can't really wind a skein on a limp swift. it definitely didn't work right and i offhandedly offered it to a few people when i thought of it, but no one really seemed too interested. maybe it was my lackluster sales job that went something like "do you want this thing? I think it's broken, I can't fix it."

Turns out, the swift works fine, you just have to know how to use it. I was holding it above my garbage can yesterday ready to toss it, giving a good-bye once over... when i noticed something..... a little silver eyelet screw that I had never noticed before.



turns out, this is a screw that you use to tighten down the arms once you have extended them to the desired length. ta-da! it works!



this is probably one of those things that if you have ever used a swift before, you have a real idea of they work, and you would have discovered it immediately. it only took me about 4 months to figure it out.

Did I tell you how cute and tiny this thing is? It separates into two pieces and can easily fit in my knitting bag



i don't really know who the manufacturer is. the partially worn sticker on the top of it says * Wool Winder * Skein Holder * Made in St. Bernard Slovakia,
 

Posted: Sun - January 8, 2006 at 11:37 AM           |

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