Center Pull Balls

Why bother winding center-pull yarn balls when you get your yarn in a center-pull skein?

If you're an avid knitter, crocheter or hand weaver, you know that every commercial skein hides a multitude of flaws. I once ran into 5 separate, hard little knots. And of course I didn't know they were coming until they reached my yarn hand. I had to unknit 10 stitches to give myself enough space to cut out the knot and leave enough tail to graft the yarn together in finishing.

After unknitting 50 stitches and grafting together 5 pairs of ends on one small piece, I was converted to winding my own.

Is there anything worse than sitting on a bus, knitting needles on fire, to be suddenly stopped by a snarl?

Rewinding your yarn into center pull balls, gives you a chance to examine the yarn, cut out knots and deal with impossible snarls before you even begin. Divying up one skein into two or more balls makes your project more portable. And finally, as you near the end of the yarn and the outside layers begin to collapse, a hand wound ball is far less likely to snarl on itself than a commercial center pull skein.

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Put the yarn tail in your palm and begin wrapping yarn around 3 fingers.
I usually wrap the yarn 8 to 10 times.
Carefully pull the yarn off fingers, keeping tail dangling, and begin wrapping around center to make butterfly.

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Fold the butterfly in half and grasp with thumb and index finger. The yarn tail is still loose, behind the hand in this photo.
Start wrapping the yarn around the thumb and index holding the butterfly. In this picture, the tail is again in the palm and being held in place by the ring and pinky fingers. Here I've been wrapping the yarn from bottom to top (yellow arrow) and am about to start wrapping from top to bottom (orange arrow).
Keep wrapping in an X fashion until you feel the yarn start to compress your fingers. At this point you can carefully pull out your fingers and put the thumb only in the center area. Your thumb is now acting as a nostepinne.

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Now start wrapping the yarn in a spiralling fashion from the bottom right to the upper left. Try to lay the yarn down 1 layer deep.
See how the yarn is being wrapped from left to right so that each successive wrap lies to the right of the last one. When you reach the point shown here, you can grasp the ball and turn it to the left on the pivot of your thumb.
Continue wrapping until you run out of yarn. I like to wrap the last yard or so like a belt around the center of the ball. Give the tail a sharp tug to dislodge the butterfly and you are ready to use the ball.

There are, of course, ball winders that you can buy. The mechanical ones, supposedly, are rough with the yarn. I had one once and stopped using it, because you have to haul it out of the closet and clamp it to a table, then unclamp it and put it away. Any speed the machine bought me in winding balls was lost in finding it and putting it away again.

The advantage of a mechanical ball winder is that it will give your ball very "square shoulders". You can see what is meant by "square shoulders" on the button to this page.

The balls in the pitcher are more cylindrical than spherical, which means they are more apt to stay put as you pull the yarn from the center.

I've found that laying down a good X shape base in stage 5, will encourage shoulders to form. Rotating the ball often helps too.

Another mechanical means of winding a center pull ball is the Nostepinne. If you check on eBay you can find lovely ones carved from exotic woods. Basically, a smooth rounded stick which you use in the same way you use your thumb in this tutorial.

The advantages it has over your thumb are that it's easier to turn the nostepinne left incrimentally while you're wrapping, so you get a smoother laydown of the yarn. Nostpinnes also sometimes have an inch long indentation in the handle. This indentation can be used to count the wraps per inch of your yarn to judge its weight.

Go back to the Fiber Page.

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Put the yarn tail in your palm and begin wrapping yarn around 3 fingers. I usually wrap the yarn 8 to 10 times. Carefully pull the yarn off fingers, keeping tail dangling, and begin wrapping around center to make butterfly.
4	5	6
Fold the butterfly in half and grasp with thumb and index finger. The yarn tail is still loose, behind the hand in this photo. Start wrapping the yarn around the thumb and index holding the butterfly. In this picture, the tail is again in the palm and being held in place by the ring and pinky fingers. Here I've been wrapping the yarn from bottom to top (yellow arrow) and am about to start wrapping from top to bottom (orange arrow). Keep wrapping in an X fashion until you feel the yarn start to compress your fingers. At this point you can carefully pull out your fingers and put the thumb only in the center area. Your thumb is now acting as a nostepinne.
7	8	9
Now start wrapping the yarn in a spiralling fashion from the bottom right to the upper left. Try to lay the yarn down 1 layer deep. See how the yarn is being wrapped from left to right so that each successive wrap lies to the right of the last one. When you reach the point shown here, you can grasp the ball and turn it to the left on the pivot of your thumb. Continue wrapping until you run out of yarn. I like to wrap the last yard or so like a belt around the center of the ball. Give the tail a sharp tug to dislodge the butterfly and you are ready to use the ball.