Center Pull balls question

#1

I finally (since KnitPicks came out with a cheap one!) invested in a ball winder. I love the thing, and love the little balls/cakes it makes. After years of being afraid of using center pull balls, for fear of tangling, I’m enjoying using them.

However, I’m finding a tendency for the balls to pull themselves out of shape, and begin to unravel on the outside…not the end unwinding, but sort of the outside layer or two pulling up…which ultimately results in tangles.

I there a way to avoid this? Does anybody know what I’m doing wrong? Is it just the way they move around in my project bag?

I’m doing two socks at once right now, and finally had to cut the yarn, rewind the balls, and rejoin–not something I want to do on a regular basis!

Any thoughts?

#2

It’s just the way they move around. You could put each ball in a ziplock bag and see if that helps; they must have got very tangled together to have to cut the yarn.

#3

Ah, then I’m not the only one.

I wind my balls by hand and when I start using them I find it helps to squish the balls to the center (I wrap my hands around like tightening a belt on them.) and then the outsides are on less tension. I’ve also have tried putting a ball band around them; just a reused strip of paper wrapped and taped.
:shrug:

Still after they have been used a while they get loose inside and getting shoved about in my back pack tends to slide the outsides around. :nails:

When they start to get sloppy I stop and rewind the remainder by hand to get if smaller firmer ball and prevent the tangle before it happens.

I’m still :think: about it. I’ve though I might steal a knee high from my DW and pop the ball inside to act as a girdle on the ball but then I’d have to sleep in the dog house.:roll:

#4

You could – gasp– buy some knee highs just for your knitting, you know, instead of stealing your honey’s. :slight_smile:

#5

I take that tail end and slip it under some stitches and then kind of tie it once. It helps, but once the inside of the cake is gutted the outside is going to collapse no matter how you do it. I sometimes rewind the cake/skein/ball. :teehee:

#6

Ya know Jack - that’s not a half bad idea!!

Too bad my hubby just got laid off…he used to bring me home tons of knee highs! (He sold industrial spray paint equipment and they used the knee highs for straining paint…so you could always come up with an alternative “reason” for buying knee highs :teehee: )

#7

Many yarn shops sell Yarn Bras:

As you pull yarn from the center the the bra compresses and hold the yarn together, some what.

#8

What a great idea!! :thumbsup:

#9

I use my center pull balls from the outside because I want to avoid the eventual collapse. The ones from my ball winder unwind very easily and neatly.

#10

I object! :eyebrow2: Who would call it a yarn “bra”!

We all know balls go in a [B]supporter[/B] and not a bra? :roll:

#11

:roflhard::roflhard::roflhard:

#12

Un-do one of those shower schrunchie net looking things … $1.00 Store … it is a long tube of “yarn bra” material. Cut to the length you need for your balls, tie a knot in the bottom and you have several very inexpensive “ball supporters”

#13

Hmmm. Jack, do you fancy yourself in beige or suntan? :slight_smile:

#14

That hurts :zombie:

#15

Ah! So that’s what those are for!