Best Christmas Present Ever

My dad made me a swift for Christmas.  He dismantled an excellence award he got at work in 2004 (left the plaque on the base - nice touch!), made the rest in his woodshop and stained it all to match.  It's just beautiful!  I never really needed one until recently, since I mostly use yarns that come in pull-skeins, but as I'm experimenting with different sock yarns to use as a base (for my eventual Etsy store!) I have had to deal with hanks of yarn more and more often.  It was tremendous fun setting the swift up in the living room and skeining off all the hanks I had lying around.  And very satisfying to have said skeins come out in perfectly tensioned little yarn cakes!

(In case you'd like to make one of your own, or drop a hint to your own dad or favorite handyman, this is where he got the recipe.)