DIY knitting swift and ball winder

I know a ball winder and a swift are important tools in knitting but I just cannot justify the expense. I usually buy yarn at my LYS, not online, so they wind the yarn for me. But they will not wind sale yarn and occasionally I have other yarn that needs wound into a ball.

For a swift I usually put the skein around my kitchen chair that has a nice flat back to hold the skein in place while I wind the ball by hand. But in a desperate moment late at night I decided to use my desk chair, pictured below with the rounded back, and that spelled disaster. I was trying to hurry because it was late but I "just had to get this yarn into a ball." You know at 11pm silly things seem really crucial.

To make a long story short, the yarn slipped off the chair towards the end of the skein and got tied up in a big knot that took an entire episode of Parenthood to undo. So this post was going to be about how great it is to save money on swifts and ball winders but it turns out they are pretty handy.
(Cascade 220 Heathers color 9451)
I did however, in all that madness, get a pretty good center pull ball wound using the tutorial from Knits With Balls. I had to use a toilet paper roll instead of a paper towel roll but it worked great. I am not going to go buy a swift and ball winder tomorrow but I may add it to my Christmas wish list. 

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