TECHknitting: Winding a skein into a ball of yarn

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 the stages shown below.

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 do have the capacity to become problematic. You see, each strand must be sorted to lay smooth among its neighbors and the center must be absolutely clear. Any loops that cross over from one side to the other, any strands that head 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 carefully inspecting the perimeter and redirecting errant strands and loops, its 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.

And finally, if one picture is worth a thousand words, a 12-second video must be worth several paragraphs, right? So here you go.

There seems to be a theory that the winder must be mounted far away from the swift, but as you see, this isn't really necessary. Important is that the yarn exiting the swift takes a direct route to the winder. If the yarn has to go around a corner to enter the winder's ball-guide, reorient the winder.

Trouble shooting

--If the winder stops but the swift keeps going, the yarn will spool around the shaft of the swift. So you have to unwind the yarn from the shaft before continuing. To prevent, stop the swift by hand the instant the ball-winder starts acting up. (This becomes an automatic reaction, pretty quick!)

--If the swift jams but the ball winder keeps going for a second, the yarn winds onto the ball very tightly. Cure by unspooling the tightly wound length and re-spool it onto the winder at normal tension before continuing.

--If the ball winder acts up and skips gears, there's too much tension between the swift and winder. Usually, this happens when twisting causes uneven feed. Cure by going back to the yarn on the swift and untwisting until the trapped strands come to the surface. Then, per above, unspool and respool the trouble spots.

Tips

--It's awfully tempting to wind up all your yarn when it first comes home. However, you cannot return yarn to the store once wound up. Also, unless you're planning to knit up soon, it's actually easier on the yarn to store it as a skein. This is because yarn in a ball is under tension, while yarn in a skein is not. Yarn under tension will eventually stretch. Then, when it finally gets wet and has a chance to relax, it may very well go back to its original length. Result: the garment will seem to shrink, and of course, shrink unevenly. You can solve this problem by winding balls LOOSELY, but far-future projects, as well as souvenir yarn really are better off stored in skeins.

--Knots in yarn have a way of appearing just as you get to the front left breast in a field of smooth stockinette. To fight unexpected knots, loosely guide the yarn through your hand as it travels from the winder to the ball. Stop the winder and cut out any knots you find, then knot in a contrasting color scrap as temporary inlay. In use, the inlay gives warning that a join is coming. Forewarned, you can plan just how much yarn you need to cut out (either just the knots and inlay, or a longer length to include the knots and inlay) in order to land your proper join in an inconspicuous spot.

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.

--As the ball is pulled off the spindle, the center collapses. If you plan to center-pull your balls, make sure you have hold of the center yarn where it crosses the spindle-slot before you unmount the ball from the winder. This is also the perfect time to fold the yarn label and pull the ball up over it: as the center collapses around it, the label is held securely.

--Finally, consider tying on contrasting color scraps to both ends of the ball--the center-pull as well as the outside end. Now the tails are obvious, even when tucked into the ball for safe-keeping. The specter of tangling is tamed, the yarn ball is angelic again.