I’m sure you could use your swift but my only caution is to make sure it doesn’t start spinning. Hopefully you have a way to slightly tighten it so you can concentrate on winding your warp under even tension.

Open the skein and place it on the swift. You will see white ties used to keep the skein in order. When you (carefully) cut those off, one of them will be tied to the end of the skein.

Yes thanks! that helps. Still, I find one tied to both ends.... Can be confusing which to wind with. I suppose that depends on your swift.

I usually find one unwinds more easily than the other based on the way the skein is placed on the swift, so choose the easier path.

Diane, after two projects where I purchased the silk in skeins from JST, where I, oh so carefully and as slowly as possible, wound from the swift, onto spools and then onto bobbins...with my next silk order, I made sure to pay the extra fee and ordered the silks pre-wound onto spools.

I did find that if you ensure the yarn on the swift runs straight with no twists in the skein...one end will unwind easier than the other end. Going slowly helped keep the silk from tangling.

Hi Diane - I often dye my own silk for a project as well as buy Jane’s fabulous silks. What I do is make sure I have a supply of the Leclerc large spools on hand and then wind my silks from my swift directly onto the spool that fits on my bobbin winder. Then my silks nicely waits for me to wind them into a warp or onto a bobbin. https://janestaffordtextiles.com/product/leclerc-styrene-spools/

Sorry Diane, Somehow I missed that you wound from the swift into balls....