The EEW Yarn Counter Accurately Measures How Much Yarn You Have Before Starting a Project
This electronic tool is perfect for knitters, crocheters, spinners, weavers, and anyone else who uses yarn.
Yarn counters help knitters keep track of how much yarn is in a ball. This is essential for project blankets or socks that need a specific amount of yarn to get right. But most yarn counters use mechanical systems that add friction, which affects its accuracy. Now, there’s a new counter that promises more accuracy at an affordable price.
The Electric Eel Wheel (EEW) Yarn Counter is a measuring tool that’s versatile, affordable, and highly accurate. It features a clamp mechanism for steadiness and can handle tables up to three inches thick. There’s also a digital display that shows you the length of your yarn, target yarn length, calibration menu, and battery power.
The device works by having yarn go around a large disk. It’s this disk that reduces error. It measures disk rotations using an optical sensor, which doesn’t add any friction, unlike most yarn counters. The low friction helps reduce error. The disk is mounted on a sealed ball bearing that helps keep friction down. In addition, the electrical system is made for fine-tuning and calibration for exact results. Apparently, the tool showed an error of only 0% to 3% during testing, which is quite impressive.
Another thing that affects accuracy is yarn thickness. Thicker yarn leaves more room for error because of the increase in diameter. To address this, the device has a “Yarn WPI” feature that allows you to set the diameter of yarn by selecting from common WPI sizes in the menu.
Though its main function is counting yarn, the EEW is also ideal for: Knitting socks (the counter helps you divide the yarn in half to ensure socks of equal length), monitoring progress (crocheters can use it to see how far they are, estimate the remaining yarn, and choose better yarn transition points), and weavers who use sectional wrapping can use EEW to help them measure identical wraps.
The EEW is currently available on Kickstarter for $45. Though the campaign has surpassed its initial goal of $10,000, there’s still time to back it and get this yarn counter for yourself.