I Love My Autowinder
Level Wind Systems Autowind Flyer is an indispensable spinning wheel accessory!
I love it!
Last Fall, I started carrying Level Wind Systems’ Autowinders in my shop, and sold the first one to myself - the LWS Autowinder for the Louet S10 spinning wheel. The LWS Autowinder is a spinning wheel flyer that is uniquely designed to wind your handspun yarn on the bobbin automatically. This system is revolutionary for the industry, as it is a self-powered level wind flyer that is totally self contained. These autowinders do not require special gear driven bobbins, oil, or the need to move yarn guides at all. They are powered by two or three alkaline AAA batteries that will last months at a time. It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with my autowinder, and it’s become an indispensable part of my spinning wheel.
Autowinding flyers aren’t new in the marketplace, but the main competitor to the LWS Autowinder has some drawbacks that I find to be dealbreakers. The Woolee Winder is the main competitor, and it works by using a gear system on the bobbin to drive the winding mechanism on the flyer. This requires special bobbins, and changed how the tension and treadling felt on the wheel in a way I disliked. The battery-driven motor on the LWS Autowinder eliminates the need for special bobbins AND it doesn’t change how the tension and treadling work on my wheel. Win!
Spinning with the Autowinder is effortless. I can pack so much yarn on my bobbins because they wind on perfectly evenly. It’s particularly nice when plying, since I don’t have to stop to move the yarn along hooks on the flyer. It just winds on evenly until the bobbin is full! I love to spin while listening to an e-book and I can get so involved in the story I forget to move my yarn on the guides regularly - and then I get big bumps and valleys on my bobbins and they don’t fill up evenly. One of the reasons I love my Louet S10 so much is the giant bobbins that hold so much yarn, and winding yarn on evenly means winning at bobbin chicken every time!
I don’t find turning the autowinder on and off to be problematic, but I do want to note that some users are bothered by it - especially forgetting to turn it off, and thus running the batteries down. I use rechargeable batteries in my Autowinder. I haven’t done experiments to see just how many hours of spinning I get on one charge, but I can say it’s A LOT.
The Autowinder for Louet that I currently use works on Louet S10, 15, 16, 17, 51, 76 and 77 wheels. I also own a Louet Victoria, and with the addition of the accessory Art Yarn Head, it now works on my Victoria too! Please note, if you have a very new Louet S10 Concept wheel, the orifice is a different shape and won’t work with this standard Louet Irish tension flyer.
Right now, I’m carrying LWS Autowinders for Louet Irish tension wheels, Majacraft, Hansen Minispinners, Electric Eel Wheel 6.0, and Ashford e-spinners in my shop. In the near future, I would like to add the flyers for Schacht, Lendrum, and Kromski wheels.
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