What's the trick to finding the yarn ball starting point?

#1

From what I can tell you’re not supposed to take the yarn from the outside of the ball. You’re supposed to start pulling the yarn from the inside of the ball, right? Okay how the heck can I find the starting yarn inside the end of the ball? One I found really easily, but on another ball I can’t find it at all, I’ve dug around with no results. :hair:

Are you not supposed to take it from the outside and unwind it that way, or do you in fact take it from the inside of the yarn ball??

Sorry if it’s not even called a yarn ball, if you can’t tell I’m new. :knitting: I’m thinking if I can’t even figuer how to find the beginning of the yarn, I’m in trouble and might as well stop now before I get in deeper over my head!

#2

I like a center pull, it works best for me, others like to unwind from the outside. Again, it’s one of those things of using what best suits your style of knitting.

Now, if you are unwinding from the outside, that’s pretty obvious. However, if you are a center pull person, what I do (and this is just me because what happens next, almost every time makes me giggle now) I stick my finger into one end, pull a string from the center… pull and watch the yarn barf (dontcha love that phrase?) and then make a small bobbin to get all the tangles out and start my knitting. :thumbsup:

I want to emphasize that I only do this because every time I do it, the kid in me escapes and giggles while thinking “yarn barf”. No one in my family gets it or me, but I’m used to that. :wink:

#3

You take it from the middle, but sometimes it winds around an outer strand and it’s a pain. When mine doesn’t come out easily I feel around the other end while I pull the side with the starter end, that way I can tell which strand is holding it. HOWEVER, sometimes there’s nothing you can do when a large bunch comes out of the middle.

There’s a good video here on KH on how to wind a center-pull ball. That’s great video to show you how to roll all that unyieldy yarn into a ball that comes out of the center.

#4

I don’t like to pull from the outside myself because the ball rolls all over the place. If you use a yarn bowl it helps keep it in place though. I either wind my own center pull or just use the center pull yarn.

#5

I think that everyone just develops their own way of doing it. The last time I tried, I ended up rewinding the entire skein, but usually I can find the end with just a little “yarn barf” :teehee: coming out with it.

Good luck! :thumbsup:

#6

I obsessively wind every thing of yarn that I get. Or I use my yarn bowl. I absolutely love both the yarn bowl and my ball winder. If you don’t want to do that you can just pull out the yarn barf (thank you Jan), then I unravel the barf and wind it into a center pull ball and stuff it back inside.

#7

This often doesn’t work very well, especially on the skeins that have a happy arrow on the label, telling you to pull from the middle:) . Just reach in and grab, and you’ll probably get a mess coming out. But just wind that into some sort of thing, and it’ll work out. There are some skeins/cakes/balls/hanks which expect you to start from the outside. But those companies are clueless and avoid them like the plague. Seriously though, I have never figured out why they don’t make it easier to start from both ends, as people have their own preferences. Laziness? I don’t know. But it’s maddening.

#8

I’ve found that there is one end with the outside end tucked in. Pull that out and feel in the other end to try to get the center. Sometimes you get lucky, other times you get barf. :shrug::teehee:

#9

You could take a long knitting needle and box a little larger than the skein of yarn.

  1. Run the knitting needle through the center of the skein.
  2. Cut notches in the side of the box to hold the needle with the skein on it.
  3. Remove wrapper on the skein of yarn.
  4. Place skein and needle in the notches in the box.
  5. Find yarn end on the outside of the skein and start knitting.
#10

Or, you could just get a yarn bowl.

#11

You had me laughing so hard at the “yarn barf” comment. Lol. But… Bc of that; I can now find my end so easily!!! Thank you!!!

#12

If you’re careful to dig into the very center, you can usually find the inside end. I learned the hard way to find and pull out the outside end first, because they can be tangled around each other.

Finding the inside end doesn’t eliminate yarn barf. It just minimizes the glob that comes out. At least most smooth yarn is easy to untangle…boucle takes lots of bad words :teehee:

#13

“Or, you could just get a yarn bowl.”

Not being familiar with the term - I googled yarn bowl - best idea ever is an old teapot. Ball of wool in pot, thread fed up spout - magic!:yay:

#14

A teapot, great idea!
I reach in from both ends and find that that helps minimize the mess of yarn.

#15

Here’s my faithful Paton’s Beehive

#16

I don’t have a “trick” per se. I look at the label and follow the instructions. If that doesn’t work, I then reach in to the center and pull a few strands out. If that doesn’t work then I try again.

I have NEVER found a sure fire 100% “it works every time” method. I use the “if at first you don’t succeed…” method.

Knitcindy