All skeined up, that yarn looks innocent, doesn't it?
What, me tangle? Never! |
But when you first start in with skeins, it seems danger lurks. Perhaps that innocent looking skein will snarl into an awful tangle, never to come right.
...snarl into an awful tangle... |
Let's take the monster by the tail and see what happens. Poke the tail (now colored red) into and through the skein. The skein comes undone in stages.
Result: a large wheel of yarn.
This wheel is made up of many many loops, tied together at one or more places along the perimeter. And this is where things really can go south. You see, each strand must be sorted to lay smooth among its neighbors while the center must be absolutely clear. Loops crossing from one side to the other, strands heading the wrong way out of a tie: these can cause endless grief.
Strands and loops crossing over the middle must be smoothed back into place, heading in the correct direction out of the tie |
After all is smooth and tidy, it's time to mount the yarn-wheel on something: a chair back, perhaps, or a yarn swift (more about swifts, below). The important thing is don't unknot the ties until the wheel is safely slung around some object which permanently prevents crossing over the middle.
What you sling the yarn around depends on what you have. The quickest set-up is a swift of some kind and a yarn-winder. But for many (many!) years I had neither, and used a chair-back to hold yarn as I wound balls by hand. TECHknitting has already shown how to wind balls by hand, and the yarn for winding is supplied as you lift the strands, one at a time, over the chair back.
Use what you have |
Swifts are basically arms of some kind which hold the yarn-wheel and (swiftly!) spin as you pull on the running yarn. All swifts hold the yarn-wheel under tension, preventing tangling: under tension a yarn wheel cannot shed loose loops here and there. Some swifts tension yarn with an umbrella-like unfolding mechanism ("umbrella swifts") and some by means of pegs. First fit the yarn-wheel loosely to the swift, then push the umbrella button or set the pegs to make the yarn wheel stretch as tight as possible.
Umbrella swift. The orange button on the hub allows the mechanism to unfold upwards like an umbrella, The yarn-wheel stretches to its fullest as the mechanism enlarges. |
Once mounted, it is time to unknot. The yarn-wheel is tied together in at least one place along its perimeter, and usually more spots, also. The main tie brings together the first (purple) and last (red) strands. Typically, the purple strand is brought to the surface in one or more loops, the red strand is threaded through the loops and the two strands are then tied together in a slip knot. This knot can be undone by pulling on the tails in the direction of the blue arrow. As to the other ties, these are usually simple loops, but after several unfortunate incidents, I try to untie all knots as much as possible, saving scissors for a last resort.
The first purple) and last (red) strands are typically interwoven, then tied with a slip knot. To undo the knot, pull the tails in the direction of the blue arrow. |
It's less obvious in real life, but I have colorized the red and purple strands to show more clearly in this photo.
Click here to enlarge: colorized, interwoven ends in real life. |
Once the first and last strands are untied, tuck the last strand behind a slat of the swift (red arrow). Leaving it loose to flap is just asking for trouble.
Tuck end behind slat |
The last step before starting to wind is untwisting the skein as it lays on the swift. Twisted strands are often confused for crossed strands because both make the swift jam up. However, because you've already eliminated crossed strands as a culprit, the trick now is to locate and undo any twist. Twist traps some strands behind others, as these green strands are trapped behind the red, below. To cure, rotate that section of the skein (blue arrow) until the trapped strands are freed to the surface. Some skeins are highly twisted, so you have to go around and around several times, rotating the skein repeatedly until it unreels smoothly.
Rotating trapped strands to the surface |
And now to winding! As mentioned, it is possible to make quite neat balls of yarn by hand, but quickest and easiest is a yarn winder.
Once out of the box, assembled and clamped to a table, the ball-winder is threaded with the yarn through the yarn-guide, and the running end of the yarn coming off the swift is trapped in the slot at the top of the spindle, as shown. As you turn the handle (doesn't matter which way, but be consistent!) the yarn winds on. The handle has been colorized green in this illustration.
End of running yarn trapped in slot atop yarn winder spindle. This will become the center-pull |
The winder base is tilted, so as it spins, it presents an ever-changing location for the yarn to wind onto. Close inspection shows the yarn actually winds on straight from the yarn-guide to the ball-surface. However, because of the tilt, the ball surface itself tilts toward then away, so yarn winds on from top of the spindle to the bottom, then back again. Further, the tilt is out of synch with the spin, so each new round of yarn goes on in a slightly different place than the one before. Result = a regular pattern of cross-winding. It's really very clever!
Cross-winding |
Geek note 1: This cross-winding pattern can be duplicated by hand for the mathematically inclined: here is an amazing 4-stage sample, a work of art in itself.
Cut out any knots you find (top) then knot in a temporary contrast color inlay (red, bottom). In use, the inlay provides warning a join is coming up. |
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Previously published posts about yarn handling