Wrap reel

A wrap reel or skein winder is a device for measuring yarn and making it into hanks of a standard size.

The reel is of a standard size and its revolutions are counted as the yarn is wrapped around it.

Typically, a set number of revolutions will be used so that the hank is of a standard size—skein or lea.

For a given reel, this would be determined by the friction of the setup and so the test hanks would be made and measured in other ways to calibrate the device.

[1] The Science Museum in London has an 18th-century wrap reel in its collection which was made for Richard Arkwright's first cotton mill in Derbyshire.