Re making center pull balls and buying locally >>>

#1

I buy the overwhelming majority of my yarn at my local LYS (and I do spend a lot-I don’t bother to add it up) but I do occasionally buy online.

Here’s my problem: when I buy hanks online, I don’t feel comfortable asking for my LYS to wind them for me. I have a winder but I swear, I have a ball-winding curse. I’m more than willing to pay, but I still hate to bring in ‘foreign’ yarn!

I almost feel like just buying balls online and skipping hanks so I don’t have to deal with this.

The only other solution I can think of is to offer up some really pricey yarn to the Yarn Goddesses and maybe they would life the swift curse.

#2

Why not buy a yarn swift? Use one of the 40% off coupons online at JoAnns like I did and it’s really reasonable. I :heart: my yarn swift and winder!

#3

But I’ve already made a mess of a hank of malabrigo and I don’t trust myself with it!

#4

lol

#5

Oh yeah Boo! I agree with mom2rachjust! You MUST treat yourself to a swift! A ball-winder by itself is useless IMHO.

I love being able to wind my hanks at 2 am in the morning! I get on a “hank windin’ roll” …and will wind up dozens and dozens of hanks while I’m in the mood!

I also put my yarn “cakes” into zippered plastic bags with the labels.
And, maybe a swatch, too.

The zippered plastic bags that I prefer are offered at www.woodlandwoolworks.com.

HERE is a link to their Fall Catalog. Scroll down.
The bags are located on pg 68 of the listing.
I keep ALL MY YARN in these bags. I order small mostly. They’ll hold 10-16 skeins. The medium bags will hold 20-30 skeins. Or, 16 bulky skeins.

#6

but I stink at winding! I’m always getting yarn underneath the winder and have to pull it out and try again. Maybe my setup is bad-maybe the winder is too close to the swift or something.
???

#7

I know when I set up my swift, i gently seperate the skein and unwind it into a loop, I find most of them fall appart easily into this loop, unless I firce it.
then I lay it on the swift and streach out the arms, a little bit tight. then I make sure that the yarn threads are all going paaralel to each other, not crossing, sometimes i have to rotate the inside out to make everything line up.
I find BOTH ends, and wrap from the one most on the outside, and tuck the other inside the yarn on the swift.
then the swift follows the yarn easily, and I dont have trouble winding my CPBs

hope this helps

#8

I always wind mine by hand so have no clue regarding a swift and winder. It may not be as fast, but it always works.

#9

I wind mine by hand also, so not sure about the winder. I found a site online that explains center-pull balls using just your thumb and it’s fabulous. (I’m having trouble finding the link, I’ll keep working on it.)

I don’t have a swift yet (I’m having my dad make me one via these instructions).

I feel your pain about the knots. I usually have to string yarn all over the house to get it unknotted. When you unknot it and make a pile, it always ends up knotted again! So I try to spread out the line as much as possible. It takes time, but I enjoy the tedious, so I will spend an hour on 1 skein. I’ve never done hanks, tho.