:help: I have a tangled hank of yarn, and I can’t wind a center-pull ball. YouTube doesn’t help. Instructions please:star:
Under the Free Videos tab at the top of this page, under Tips (down towards the bottom) are instructions on how to wind a center pull ball of yarn. And good luck with that tangled hank!
Unless I buy yarn in a yarn store I always wind my yarn by hand. I learned from the link Sue gave. I start by winding on two fingers though, but otherwise it’s about the same.
There’s an ancient and useful (also inexpensive) tool called the “nostepinne” (other spellings: nostepenne and similar) used for winding center-pull balls, esp. large ones.
A search on this key term will find helpful tips. The most helpful tip for me was the ready-to-hand improvised nostepinne: the handle of a wooden spoon! My first attempt was pretty crude and…hmm…unlovely. My second was much better.
BTW, don’t assume that you can wind the ball best with your right hand doing the work and your left hand “helping.” I write right-handed, but can wind center-pull balls with my wooden-spoon handle much better with the left hand doing the work and my right hand “helping.” So check it out both ways. 
DCM
Here is a handy website which she shows how to wind your yarn around a toilet paper tube to get a nice, neat center pull ball - I used this method until recently, when I decided to splurge and get a ball winder.
http://laughingpurplegoldfish.blogspot.com/2008/08/winding-yarn.html