Here's what we wound up with....

Our top quality linen is sourced from Europe and comes from just across the Channel.
Unfortunately, when it arrives, it isn't already wound in to neat hanks. We have to wind each of our skeins ourselves before dyeing them. Winding them one by one was just not an option. We needed something that would do several at once. So it was off to the drawing board, and here is what we came up with.

OK, it's not perfect, but I'm really proud of our winder. It is the result of a true family team effort. My father and I designed it and started to put it together, and my husband helped us to modify the design to make it more functional and finished off the assembling of the various parts. It is hand-made using wood and perspex. It might look like some weird contraption out of a Heath Robinson book, but IT WORKS.