If there’s a way the make things easier… I’m going for it and that means loads of gadgets! I’ve picked up a few along the way on my CKM journey and I’d like to share my opinions on them with you. From yarn winders to tensioners, I want to try them all.. the first gadget I got was a yarn winder. I’ve had one since the 1980’s as I did flat bed machine knitting then. The manual winders are excellent and I always make a point of winding the yarn before I start knitting as it makes the tension more even. I upgraded and got an electric one too. So I can wind two balls at the same time! 😂 I actually have 4 winders so I can get the whole family involved! 😁 I managed to get my hands on an electric motor for the Sentro machines. I got it second hand on Vinted. Now this is a game changer! Some might say it will wear out the gears quicker and this may be true, but I still love my motor, although I don’t use it all the time. I have had two machines going at once, hand cranking and motor cranking. You can also get an adapter to go on your handles and use it on a drill or electric screwdriver but again, there’s the risk of the gears wearing quicker. I got some fork tensioners for the Addi machines, they also fit the small spaceship Sentro and the small Knitting circle. I got the Addi brand ones as the ones I got from Amazon were rubbish and didn’t fit properly! You get what you pay for! What’s your favourite gadgets? Tell us here

Manual vs Electric I have both manual and electric winders and was using both this morning so I wanted to do a little review on what I think of them and which I prefer. I think there are pros and cons with both manual and electric winders. I’ve found that some manual winders work better than others. The one that I feature in this post is the grey one in the photos. I am very impressed with this manual winder. It’s very smooth and winds fast. Will wind a whole 100gram ball with no problem. Very rarely tangles. I only have one electric winder and I like it very much. It winds a nice cake of yarn while you do something else! lol.. however, I have found that if you have it winding too fast, the yarn will catch and tangle and you can spend a lot of time unraveling. It winds nice and even and takes a 100gram ball easily. Winding tension is much better with the manual machine, you get a much firmer ball with the manual. The electric one winds looser and can unravel when knitting. You can see in the photos the manual wound vs the electric wound. I think that it’s down to how you like your yarn wound. I’ve found that tighter wound cakes work much better on the machines and knit a much more even tension. Also… I can manually wind 100gram quicker than the electric one does it! 😁 Hope this has helped a bit!!

I have leveled up to Level 8. Thank you everyone for helping me get here.

Congratulations everyone, we have moved up to #55 in all Skool communities. (There are over 180 000 of them). Your continually activity in this group, liking, helping, supporting each other, commenting, it all makes a difference and I am proud of you. #1, we are one step closer!!!

The word ‘yarn’ comes from Middle English from the Old English gearn, akin to Old High German garn. Dutch garen, Ancient Greek χορδή(chordē, "string"), and Sanskrit hira, "band".It originally referred to entrails