I can only assume I was a bad girl in 2007 because Santa only brought me one of the things off my wish list. This left me more than a little depressed so I treated myself to a swift and ball winder. Both of these items can be a little pricey, which is one of the reasons I put off buying them, but I found them on sale on Joann.com. Use a 40-50% coupon (go, scour the Internet!), or gift card, to offset some of the costs and you have a terrific value. I am very pleased with my new toys, despite some initial set up problems (be sure to read the reviews of the products -- the feedback is tremendously helpful).
Gone are the tangled hanks of Araucania Nature Wool that were seeping into all parts of my stash. Peek in the containers and you'll find the wool wound, labeled, and neatly stacked. No more knitting off the hank (that happened only once, but what a fiasco it was!) or feeling guilty about asking my LYS to wind yarn bought elsewhere. I feel that I've graduated to a whole new level of knitting.