Swift

Before I was able to rationalize springing the money for a real yarn swift, I built one from Tinker Toys.  For the uninitiated, a yarn swift is a kind of merry-go-round thing you put twists of yarn on so you can wind them into a ball.  Note that this particular model was built complete with a little flag bearing a smiling 4-leaf clover. 

Naturally, the flag has its own little story, though it has nothing to do with the swift. If you must know, I sometimes put my hair up with chopsticks, and my hubby made the flag one day and put it on one of the chopsticks, perhaps so he could locate me more easily in the vast sea of other people running around with chopsticks in their hair.