Indie Yarn Dyer Reviews The Laundry Alternative Nina Soft Spin Dryer 

So happy to finally see you review it!

its on my list now that i've started dyeing my own yarn ! great review Rebecca !

I had one of these for years. Great gadget. Maxwell House regular size plastic coffee can is perfect size for the spout. (Used 2 and sat it in an old towel. Traded out the cans to dump.) Also could sit it in the tub to run it. Will drain well right down the tubs drain. Be blessed.

Thanks for the info....I will have to check it out since I want to dye my own yarn

I’ve had my Nina for over a year and I absolutely could not do without it! I am blessed with a permanent spot in my garage “dye lab,” and I use a very large stainless steel bowl to catch the water. I frequently stuff it all the way to the top with clean fleece, which is about 3 pounds! That’s a lot of salad spinner effort . And far more efficient. Every fiberista who is serious about fleece/yarn washing/dyeing should have one. Even if it means selling the cat - ? 🤪

Hi, Rebecca - Great video! Some tips for you: Don't be afraid to really USE the spin dryer. It's a workhorse! I have had mine for almost five years and have used and abused it, and it's still going strong, with no hint of even the tiniest bit of wear and tear. I love, love, love it! For many loads (of regular clothes), I run the dryer for 5 to 7 minutes, sometimes as much as 10. I know the motor can wear out if you regularly run it for more than 15 minutes in a single session. But there have been more than a few occasions where I have just forgotten about it and only remembered it after it had been running for more than an hour (one time it was almost three hours!), and it's none the worse for wear. So if you want to get the yarn dryer, I would suggest running it for 10 minutes. You can do an experiment to kind of gauge the benefit: Make sure the water receptacle tub is empty. Start the dryer. After 2 or 3 minutes, or when the water starts to greatly slow down, some the dryer (but don't remove the yarn) and empty the water into the sink. Then resume the spinning for another few minutes, up to 10 minutes or until you can barely see any dripping. Then empty that water into something that can be measured - a measuring cup, mason jar, or whatever. You could optionally break up this last part of the experiment so that you're stopping to empty (and measure) the water every 2 minutes or so, measuring it incrementally each time. Once you have extracted what you believe to be the maximum amount of water, you can judge from the water extracted after the initial 2- or 3-minute spin and judge for yourself whether the amount of extra water was worth the extra spinning time. If you measured it in smaller 1- or 2-minute increments along the way, as suggested above, that would help you find your "sweet spot" in terms of total spinning time to get the most water practical without wasting extra minutes to get, say, just an extra tablespoon of water. Does that make sense? Additionally, to further protect the yarn from going crazy inside the spinner and possibly tangling, you could also add it to a mesh laundry bag and just spread it out flat on the bottom. Lastly, I often have a scenario where the dryer wants to bounce all over the place when I first start it because I am usually cramming a full load of laundry (from my portable washer that I also got from the Laundry Alternative) into the spin dryer, and it's hard to get it balanced just right (especially towels). Instead of worrying about loading it just perfectly or making sure the pink top is on there perfectly flat and balanced, I just do the best I can, and then I lean hard on the dryer with my hands, using all my weight, for the first 30 seconds or so of spinning. It usually levels out by itself after that and is fine for the duration of spinning time for that load. On the super-rare occasion when it didn't (I can still count on one hand the number of times that has happened in almost five years), I just open it up, pull some of the clothes out, rearrange them, and start over, and it's fine. I'm glad you're enjoying your new toy and all that fun dyed yarn! ~Karen :)

I found this video after asking about you showing us how you spin things dry. Anyway, this reminds me of when I was a girl. Our neighbor was very poor and her washing machine was two seperate cylinder type things. One where it would wash and after she washed it she had to put it into an attached spinner. Your spinner reminds me of that other then the fact it doesn't have a washing attachment. Great item!

After watching your review and watching in the past other fiber artists using it to spin out their scoured fleeces and roving. l went ahead and ordered mine today. I was using a salad spinner which I could only spin small batches, but it did work. I almost bought a commercial 10 gallon salad spinner, but you still have to hand crack those and they run about $70.00. Some fiber preppers use a top load washer for spinning and they don't recommend front loaders for raw fleece. Besides I don't want to use my washing machine and have any type of lanolin trapped in the fiber going down my drain. The price was really reasonable and I love the portability. I can set this outside and let the dirty to clean water, water my lawn. Ha! Thanks for sharing.

I have one and ❤️it! I use shower curtain rings on all my skeins. And same pan to catch water as you have here, no complaints at all. Highly recommend this👍

My LYS has one of these...she loves it.

Thanks for this review. I’ve been wanting one for a long time. I live in Florida and because of the humidity, sometimes yarn can take up to three days to dry. I am betting this could cut down my dry time significantly.

Once upon a time there was a washing machine that you could run outside it didn’t need to be hooked up permanently. You would fill the was tub wash your stuff then put it in a spinner and drain the water back in to the tub to reuse the water. It saved water lots of water. If I get into dyeing in a big way I would try to find one.

Will this hold twin sized bedding? Great review!

Thank you.

So glad that you like it... but here's a really important question. What have you named her?

OMGGG I was just introduced to this yesterday! I am sooo going to be getting one of these, thank you for doing a video on this! It will save so much time in prepping time! This is a great review thank you!! Did you have an affiliate link to this?

if you hang things to dry outside you could also set this up outside close to where you hang your clothes or yarn.

I'm planning on buying one. I have been considering one for a while and saw your video when you received yours in the mail. I was anxious to see your review. I want it for yarn dying but also for hand knits. Gosh they can be difficult to press water out especially with feltable wool that you don't want to felt. I think this would be awesome. Thanks for your review. I wondered how it worked before ordering and you answered that. The only thing I did see someone mention on amazon was that it's listed with a 3 year manufacturer warranty and the paperwork only says a 1 year. Did you see that as well?

Just saw your review and I’m impressed. But..just curious…how is that different or better than just running things through the spin cycle on the washing machine?

After your unboxing. I went to the Laundry Alternative to check things out>. I opted for an open box Mega spin as I’ve been very unhappy with the spin job from my washer. Funnily enough, I was testing it for the first time when I saw that this video had come out. I love it! My hand-knitted wool socks came out soft and just damp, similar to what happened with the roving. Just wish it had a big enough capacity for my wool blankets-Oh well,can’t have everything. Thanks so much for your videos.

Is it good when you have knitted items to spin the water out of?

I hand wash my wool sweaters every spring and I would love this product. This model is unavailable, but Amazon has another one. Please update your link.

The link you have for this says not available. Can you please provide another link for purchasing this item. Thank You 😊

This seems wonderful!Would this work during the washing/blocking process for knitted objects? Would you be willing to test it and report back to us to let us know if hand knitted objects felt? Do you have a swatch you could use? If you don’t I’d be happy to donate some small objects or swatches for a test run.

May be a silly question. But why would you not just use the spin cycle on your washing machine?

how to purchase the things?

I wish I got this before a stupid ventless dryer.

Do you still use this? What is your opinion of it now?

#squee *sneak peeks*

This video could have been condensed to 3 minutes. It did not need to be 17 minutes. Most strangers, watching this video, only care enough to see a quick demo and to hear an owner's opinion about whether she recommends it. Strangers are not interested in her life story. I therefore doubt that anybody, viewing this video, sat through the entire 17 minutes, just to decide whether they should buy it. They probably did like me. I skipped to the end because I figured that the end is where she would give her recommendation.