How to wind a skein of yarn
Learning how to wind a skein of yarn is made a lot easier with a couple of tools and will prevent those terrible tangles than can happen. A yarn swift and a ball winder shave lots of of time of the process too – it can take 15-20 minutes to wind a skein by hand compared to 2-3 minutes with a ball winder – but there can be quite an investment for these tools.
Recommended Tools to Wind A Skein of Yarn
I use a low cost ball winder from Amazon which has stood the test of time – I’d always recommend this winder to anyone. Click here to see my favourite
For my yarn swift, I picked up on sale as they vary wildly in price. I got mine from KnitPicks but out of all the ones I’ve tried it’s still my favourite.
Click here to see the one I have. I noticed a great set of both the birch yarn swift and a ball winder for a great price too – click here for the set.
I really prefer the wooden, umbrella style swifts over the metal/plastic, mainly for durability and less risk of snagging the yarn.
How to wind a skein of yarn with a yarn swift and Ball Winder
Set up your Swift & Winder
Get your tools set up and ready before you undo your skein of yarn by securing your Swift and Ball Winder to the edge of a table, with about 18″ between them.
Whether you’re using a swift and ball winder or not, the next step of create a ball of yarn from a skein begin the same. It’s this step that will prevent the worst of the tangles too!
1. Lay Out Your Skein
The skein will be twisted up to make it smaller to transport, simply undo the twist and lay the skein out flat, ensuring the yarn is running through the knotted strands used to keep it in order.
There could be 2-4 places the skein has been knotted – do not undo or cut any knots yet!
2. Secure the yarn ensuring all the strands are running through the knots in the same direction
With a Swift – Place the yarn over your swift and push up the movable bolt to secure against the umbrella like arms – secure the bolt ensuring the strands are held tightly
By Hand – place the yarn over the back of a chair (or over your knees)
3. Cut the Knots
There will be a few knots around the skein, find the main knot, which will look to have 3-4 strands coming out of it – leave this knot to last.
Cut each knot, gently removing the yarn being used to create the knot.
The main knot (pictured above) will be made using the ends of the yarn, cut the knot and gently untwist the ends from the skein – one of those ends will be used for winding
4. Get Winding
With a ball winder – thread the end through the tension bar and secure in the notch in the winder.
Gently turn the handle (the swift will also begin to turn) and wind the yarn on to the winder
Once all the yarn is added to the winder, remove the end from the notch and ensure is pulled through the top of the ball and push the rest of the ball from the bottom, up off the winder
By Hand – secure 1 end around your finger and thumb, and begin to wind the yarn around your fingers to create the beginning of a ball.
Once the ball is established, remove from your fingers, and continue to wrap the yarn around the ball, adjusting the position of 45 degrees after every 4 wraps until all the yarn is added.
Important Note – it is recommended to rewind a ball created on a ball winder for a 2nd time to prevent the yarn ball being too tight and overly stretching the yarn. It will also allow the yarn to pull from the middle more easily.
One of the other best things about using a ball winder over your hands, is that it creates a centre pull yarn cake that’s a pleasure to crochet with – I’ve known people to wind all their balls of yarn into these cake shapes once their delivery of a ball winder arrived!
If you’re wondering what the pretty yarn is in these photos, it the Autumn Poppy and Rose Yarn, hand dyed by High Desert Yarn that I used for the Autumn Poppy Crochet along.
