Ball Winder!
No, "ball winder!" is not an expletive, although upon reflection, it could work as one. I'll try it later.
A couple of questions arose at last Thursday's gathering of the Library Knitters. Briefly we discussed whether to start a new ball or skein of wool from the outside edge of the ball or by digging the starter end from the center of the skein. You will seldom run into trouble by starting with the outside end; although you may want to put the ball into a basket or yarn bowl to prevent it from dancing across the floor as you knit. A ball of yarn that has been started from the center tends to stay put a little better.
I habitually dig deep into the center of my skeins of yarn and dig for the center starter end of the yarn. Mostly I'm pretty successful but occaisonally and as recently as last Saturday this happened:
If you keep messing with it thinking you can recover (and I did) this can happen:
BALLWINDER! (see it kind of works doesn't it?)
A Very Brief and Rudimentary Lesson About Balls, Skeins and Hanks.
Yarn is most commonly sold in balls, skeins and hanks. The reason for the different format I suspect is due to the machinery used by the various manufacturers. I've also read that how it's wound may affect shipping costs (more balls fit into a box than hanks or vice versa) but I'm not convinced on that score. The physical difference is most easily explained with a bit of photography. The left half of the split image below shows a ball and a skein of yarn. The ball of yarn is shaped like a ball - easy peasey no trouble there. A skein is shaped like an oblong ball, so far so good.
The right half of the split image above shows a hank of yarn. A hank is shaped like a twisted knot and it is in fact, a twisted loop of yarn. Where confusion sometimes enters the game is that hanks of yarn are often referred to as skeins as of yarn. I've even read that "a skein of yarn is wound into a hank". (sigh).
Remain undaunted by the word discrepancy. We are a knitters and knitters are accomplished multi-taskers and as such are perfectly capable of using skein and hank inter-changeably as long as the yarn is in front of us. Where it becomes tricky is when we are ordering by phone or online without a photograph. It is extremely frustrating to receive a hank of yarn in the mail when one is expecting a skein. Why? Because a skein, like a ball, can be knit as soon as the wrapper comes off. A hank on the other hand requires...an other hand, hands, or a ball winder!
So why purchase a hank of yarn if you can't just jump right in and start knitting? Theories abound about why some yarns come in hanks and not balls or skeins. The theories I've bumped into most often in my reading and internet travels revolve around production by smaller and specialty producers who tend to create hanks of yarn. Also there is a theory that yarn wrapped in a hank is stretched less and crimped less than yarn that is wound into a ball. There may well be some truth there. Speaking anecdotally and strictlly as a layperson, I've found that the more expensive the yarn the more likely it is to be wound into hanks (of course there are exceptions all over the place). Some of my favourite yarns come in hanks.
Regardless of the format most of us have wrapped or re-wrapped a ball of wool by hand. The more clever of us have convinced someone else to do it for us. No those are not my hairy knuckles in the photograph.
Trouble begins when we purchase a hank of yarn. When you untwist that hank it looks like this. Suddenly your own hands aren't enough, you need 4 hands (if you are really good 2 of them don't have to be your own, they can belong to your friend, Lou).
If you haven't got a second pair of hands (or a friend named Lou you can coerce into a photo) you can become rather desperate and find yourself resorting to all sorts of questionable alternatives for holding your yarn (yes that is my barbeque - I did say the alternatives were both questionable and desperate).
Limited success with the above can lead you to one of those "Ah-Ha!" moments and you realize you need a living being to hold the skein while you wind the ball.
Okay, not any living being.
All this leads us back to extra hands or a couple of devices that will literally have you and your family members weeping for joy. The answer to the solo ball wind is the the ball winder and the swift.
Go ahead, say it, you know you want to.
BALL WINDER!
Hope to see you at the Prince Rupert Library on February 16th for the next meeting of the Library Knitters.
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