Winding a centre-pull ball
Centre pull balls are great to use and learning to do them from yanks is really useful. But... if you don't do them right, you get an awful tangle in the middle that is impossible to fix. It's in the middle of the ball, duh.
I have been trying to wind a centre pull ball for quite some time, but all the videos and tutorials I'd found were not working for me. I'd actually given up doing it when I found this technique. Funny, that is just on knittinghelp.com, the web page I learned to knit with, and I'd never notice it before. Their video tutorials are great.
Addendum:
It has been a little longer than a year since I have written this post and I am shocked. I cannot recall ever using the above recommended technique. I do remember having problems with my first centre-pull balls, but in the last year I have been using them without any problem.
The obvious drawback of the technique presented in the above link is that, unless you have huge thumbs, you can only wind very small skeins with it. Another problem is that unless you wind it very loosely (something I simply cannot do, no matter how much I practice), your thumb (and that bit of yarn) will create a small centre. This is a problem because, as you will find out, the natural elasticity of yarn will tighten up this centre making it hard to pull the yarn and entangling it in the process. To overcome both these problems I like to use the glamorous toilet paper roll technique. It works well and the paper roll has just the right size for an average sized skein and also the right width, even if it may seem too wide at first. The secret for not getting a tangle in the centre is (1) wind as loosely as possible (this is also important to protect the yarn, as keeping yarn under tension ruins it); (2) be careful to always wrap in such a way that you are advancing and not crossing strands, just like you see in the video below:
I have been trying to wind a centre pull ball for quite some time, but all the videos and tutorials I'd found were not working for me. I'd actually given up doing it when I found this technique. Funny, that is just on knittinghelp.com, the web page I learned to knit with, and I'd never notice it before. Their video tutorials are great.
Addendum:
It has been a little longer than a year since I have written this post and I am shocked. I cannot recall ever using the above recommended technique. I do remember having problems with my first centre-pull balls, but in the last year I have been using them without any problem.
The obvious drawback of the technique presented in the above link is that, unless you have huge thumbs, you can only wind very small skeins with it. Another problem is that unless you wind it very loosely (something I simply cannot do, no matter how much I practice), your thumb (and that bit of yarn) will create a small centre. This is a problem because, as you will find out, the natural elasticity of yarn will tighten up this centre making it hard to pull the yarn and entangling it in the process. To overcome both these problems I like to use the glamorous toilet paper roll technique. It works well and the paper roll has just the right size for an average sized skein and also the right width, even if it may seem too wide at first. The secret for not getting a tangle in the centre is (1) wind as loosely as possible (this is also important to protect the yarn, as keeping yarn under tension ruins it); (2) be careful to always wrap in such a way that you are advancing and not crossing strands, just like you see in the video below:
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