Yarn shops use a swift and ball winder to help you winding yarn into balls. What if you want to do it yourself? I’m going to teach you how to wind by hand.
Winding yarn using a paper towel roll
You can hand wind a ball of yarn by following these steps:
Step 1: You will need a core when winding. There are a couple of inexpensive choices, and a paper towel roll is a handy solution. First, you will need to cut a slit at the top edge of the roll, and this is where you will anchor the yarn tail.
Step 2: Untwist the skein and open it up, you will see small ties around yarn strands, use a scissor to snip these ties off.
Step 3: Ask a friend for help, use his or her arms to hold the loop of yarn while you wind. Or you can place two chairs back to back and spread them apart with some gaps between them, then place the loop of yarn firmly around chair backs.
Step 4: Anchor yarn tail in the slit of the paper towel roll, wrap the yarn around the roll a couple of times, then turn the roll some degrees and start wrapping the yarn in parallel from a different angle. You can rotate the roll while you’re winding.
Step 5: Don’t pull too tightly on the yarn, when you’re coming to the end of the yarn, wrap it in the center a couple of times then tuck the yarn tail under the strands.
Step 6: pull the yarn ball out of the paper towel roll, and you have a hand wound center pull ball.
You can also wind yarn around your fingers, but it’s not recommended, and you will not get a center pull ball in this way.
Winding yarn using a swift and ball winder
A yarn ball winder is a rotator, and it is used to wrap yarn around the core and form a center pull ball. A swift can spin by itself, and it works as a holder for yarn loops. You can buy these tools from local yarn stores or online stores like Amazon.com. They are great gifts for knitters.
Leave a Reply