Hi everyone.I have looked at the advice about knitting directly from a cone and I can see people find it works ok (I have never tried before)
Thing is,I would need to use 2 cones at the same time e g 2x 4ply for dk How do people manage that please?
Also,if I want to wind it into balls and use it that way,has anyone got any hints for how to go about it please? TIA
The only thing I know about winding cones into balls is that you have to do it so that the cone turns, like put it on a spindle or paper towel holder or something. If you pull the yarn straight off the top, it imparts extra twist.
I’ve got about 3,000 yards of a beautiful blue that I can’t use because it’s so twisted that it kinks all the time. Unless somebody here has a cure for that?
I have not worked with cones but when I work with 2 balls I place one on my left and one on my right. Whichever hand you hold yarn in, you want your yarn coming from that side (not dragging it as you knit) so before a row I pull out both balls enough for a row, this excess sits on the side I hold my yarn in. This way it runs smoothly for the row, no yanking, no weird tension. It also gives an opportunity to spot any unexpected knots or joins in the yarn before I get to it mid row and i can decide ahead of time what i want to do about the knot.
At the end of the right side row I turn my work clockwise and at the end of a wrong side row I turn anti clockwise. This way the yarn balls never tangle. If you’re working in the round I have no tips, it seems things need to be moved all the time to prevent twists and tangles.
I use kitchen scales to weigh balls. I suggest not winding the 2 yarns together into one ball but keeping them seperate.
That’s really helpful.Thanks
What a lot of useful information .Thank you😊
ColoCro, I wonder if you could somehow let it twist in the opposite direction so that it untwists as you knit. Securing the strand to the ball and letting it dangle would be tedious because you would have to keep repeating the process.
Can you wind a hundred yards into cake as a test and then try pulling from the center or from the outside to see which will untwist the yarn? or rewind the initial cake from a center pull cake. I hand wind yarn and I haven’t tried this so it’s just an idle thought.
What about rewinding it from the centre of the ball (if you can get to it)? I often wind skeins twice to eliminate the twist. Once into a cake, and then from the centre I’d the cake to a second cake.
Also, if I use a cone on my knitting machine, the yarn spools off the top target than the chime spinning. I don’t seem to get any extra twist.
Yeah, I tried letting it unwind off my balcony–that’s a no-go for that much yarn. I haven’t tried rewinding it, though. It seemed like that would just add even more twist, but I should at least experiment.
My main experience comes from making yards and yards of piping, and seeing how the cable cord that goes in the center behaves. And then these yarn cakes. Maybe it’s because the woman who did it used an electric ball winder and it went so fast? All I know is that it’s a twisted mess to use it. I started a project but had to stop in the middle and end of every row to let it untwist.
Oh dear, that doesn’t sound good! I wind using a hand cranked winder, either from a swift or from a rotating spindle. But I then repeat using the strand from the centre of the cake, putting the cake on the floor under the winder. It seems to reverse the twist of the first wind.
This sounds so painful. Using your balcony is certainly going above and beyond. I’ll ask some friends who spin and see if they have a suggestion.
@mullerslanefarm @Shintoga @FluffyYarn do you have any suggestions for untwisting some coned yarn?
I’m not an expert on untwisting yarns, but think the suggestion of winding some into a cake twice is worth trying out. Would making a hank and steaming it help?
Do you have a lazy susan (not a lazy kate) or a rotating spice rack that you can set it on? I imagine the cone would turn with the lazy susan as the yarn comes off.
That would have been great initially, but it’s now off the cones and in cakes. No matter how I pull it from the cake, it kinks up once I’ve pulled up a couple of yards.
See if this helps untwisting the cakes:
It explains why my yarn is twisted, but not how to untwist it. My ball-winder can’t be cranked in the opposite direction. I still haven’t tried re-caking a small portion of the yarn.
Does flipping the cake upside down on the winder bring any joy?
Could this help? You’d have to untwist each row/round I reckon, but the bulldog clip seems helpful. Perhaps if you are determined enough to use the yarn you could get in a rhythm of untwisting as you go.
Yes, that works just fine. It’s just that there’s 3000 yards of it! We were on a tour at Brown Sheep, and they had done an entire run with the ‘wrong’ color combo (i.e. a blend not listed as one of that year’s colors), and were selling it at half price! I think everyone on the bus bought a cone or two, because it was a beautiful mid-range denim blue.
We can drop this topic now. You’ve all given me some ideas to try, but it’s not a current project. The yarn has been sitting there for literally years, it can sit a little longer. @Pam22 --sorry! I didn’t mean to hijack your post!
No problem 