How to Use a Yarn Winder

Sometimes the yarn you buy from the store is not in a usable form. Here are some simple instructions for how to use a yarn winder.

Steps

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    1
    Securely attach your ball winder to the edge of a counter or table. Square edges are best. To avoid damage to your counter/table, you may want to place a piece of cloth between the ball winder and the counter.
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    Find the end of your yarn. This can be tricky. Have patience.
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    Attach the end of your yarn to the notch in your yarn winder. (Refer to your item's directions to see how to do this. Every ball winder is a little bit different!)
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    Slowly begin winding. You will want to do this slowly at first to get used to how the yarn winds. Different fibers react different ways.
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    Continue winding, always in the same direction, slowly. If you go too fast, the yarn may get caught in the gears below (on some models.)
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    After you have wound all the yarn, you should decide if you want a center-pull ball or an outside-pull ball.
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    If you want a center-pull, hold the end of the yarn coming from the middle with one hand, and gently ease off the ball.
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    If you want an outer-pull, put your thumb on top of the yarn coming from the center, and gently ease off the ball.
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    Put your winder away.
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Method 1
Method 1 of 1:

If you are winding a skein

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    Undo the skein of yarn.
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    Put it on your skein winder/the back of a chair/your friends hands.
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    Follow steps 1-9.
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Community Q&A

  • Question
    Is it true that I shouldn't wind my yarn until right before I'm ready to crochet?
    Community Answer
    Community Answer
    It's all about your personal preference, but there's no harm in winding it right away. It's better to do it when you're excited about a new "toy" than when you're just about to start a project! Winding now will also help you spot imperfections or issues with the yarn before you get into a project. I don't like unnecessary interruptions when I'm working a project, so I wind beforehand.
  • Question
    Is it OK to wind yarn any time? I read somewhere where you shouldn't wind yarn until right before you use it.
    Community Answer
    Community Answer
    I don't see why not. Yarn comes in hanks, balls, or skeins, which are all wound in some way or another. It's an excellent way to store your yarn - it's much easier to store uniformly sized skeins or balls, and it makes it easy to tell at-a-glance what you have. I wind my skeins or hanks as soon as I can so I can undo knots and spot any issues before I begin a project. Variegated yarn makes a strong case for winding right away, and that case is to make sure the skein doesn't have a new color pattern starting in the middle of a skein.
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Warnings

  • If you do not pay attention to what you are doing, you may get the yarn caught in the gears. This may destroy your yarn.
    ⧼thumbs_response⧽
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Things You'll Need

  • A ball winder
  • Yarn
  • A skein winder (optional)

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About This Article

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, volunteer authors worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 27,850 times.
15 votes - 53%
Co-authors: 4
Updated: June 3, 2021
Views: 27,850
Categories: Yarn and Thread
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