How to Skein Yarn
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How to Make Skeins of Yarn and Center-Pull Balls
There are many beautiful, handmade tools you can purchase to manage your yarn. What do you do if you need something now or if you don't have any extra money to spend right now? For many of these tools, you can find something around the house to use or you can make your own tools from simple, inexpensive materials. This lens lists some resources for making and using tools for making skeins and winding yarn into balls. I also have another lens on making spinning tools such as spindles, spinning wheels, cards, and combs.
Definitions
What does this word mean?
First you have to know the lingo.
- Ball Winder - A hand-crank device that is used to wind yarn from a swift into center-pull balls.
- Niddy Noddy - A device for winding yarn to make a skein. Typically they have a central shaft with arms on each end that are arranged at 90 degree angles to each other.
- Nostepinne - A stick that is used to wind yarn into center-pull balls by hand. I have used large diameter wooden dowels and empty cardboard towel paper rolls as substitutes. The instructions for using them are much the same.
- Swift - A tool for unwinding skeins so you can wind the yarn into a ball. They come in several configurations but most rotate. The umbrella swift and the squirrel-cage swift are the two most common types. Umbrella swifts can be purchased as metal or wooden models. Don't have time to purchase or make one? Use someone's hands or a couple of chair backs as a substitute.
Tools for Managing Yarn and Making Skeins
What do you need
Once you have your yarn that you've been spinning, how do you make it into a skein? First you need something to wind the yarn around. You can have someone hold their hands out while you wrap the yarn around them. You can wrap the yarn around the back of a chair or two. You can even use your own knees. You can also make or purchase a niddy noddy. A niddy noddy will also give you an approximate length. Once you have your yarn in the form of a skein, you can wash it, set the twist, or dye it.
If you have a skein of yarn and want to make a center pull ball, you will need that unsuspecting person nearby or a couple of chair backs or a yarn swift. Then you can wind your ball by hand or use a nostepinne or ball winder. If you don't have a nostepinne or a ball winder and can't wind a ball by hand, you can use a dowel or a toilet paper roll as a substitute nostepinne.
How to Make A Niddy Noddy
For the DIY folks
There are many beautifully made wood niddy noddies, but you can also make your own. PVC niddy noddies are extremely easy to make. Here's some places where you can find instructions.
- Constructing a PVC Niddy Noddy
- This site has instructions to make a niddy noddy and a diagram.
- How to Make a Wooden Niddy Noddy
- This page has instructions for making a simple wooden niddy noddy.
How to Make a Yarn Swift
Where to stretch your skein out
Do you like to work with wood or maybe you have some scrap wood laying around? You might want to try your hand at making a swift.
- DIY Yarn Swift
- Crafty Diversions describes how to make a wooden yarn swift with some simple tools and supplies.
- How to Make a Yarn Swift With Tinkertoys
- Crafting Jen used Tinkertoys to constructa simple yarn swift.
- Lego Yarn Ball Winder and Swift
- Ed Paradis constructed a Ball Winder and Yarn Swift with Legos. Includes pictures and video.
- Make your own Yarn Swift! - Knitting Without Needles
- When you need a yarn swift but all you have is some markers and a computer chair.
- Everything Old: Tutorial: DIY Yarn Swift for under $15, and some helpful links!
- How to make a sturdy, adjustable wooden swift for under $15.
- My DIY yarn swift - made for $5
- A nice looking swift made from a discarded patio umbrella.
- DIY: Yarn Swift
- This yarn swift is made from something almost everyone has around the house, a bottle and clothes hangers.
- Tilta Swift
- This swift is also made from coat hangers, but this version is portable. The parts can be stashed in your knitting so you can set it up on site.
How to Make a Ball Winder or Nostepinne
Innovative tools for winding yarn
These links range from an electric ball winder you can make at home to a homemade nostepinne.
- Make Your Own Power Yarn Winder
- Detailed instructions for making a yarn winder from an electric stand mixer. A swift or another person to help you would come in handy with this technique.
- Electric Mixer Yarn Winding Tutorial
- Very easy to follow instructions for making a yarn winder with an electric hand mixer and a toilet paper roll. She points out several places where you may have problems. This method looks like it would work best if you already have a swift.
- How can I spin on a budget?
- How to make your own spinning tools, including a nostepinne and a spindle, and get fiber on a budget. There are a number of good suggestions in this post.
- The usefulness of balloons in life
- How to use a balloon as a nostepinne. The page is in French but there are enough pictures to understand the process. I haven't tried this technique, but it looks like it makes a very nice looking ball of yarn.
- Lego Ball Winder
- The Portland, Oregon yarn store Twisted! has a Lego Ball Winder made by an engineering friend. I couldn't find any instructions for making one but perhaps this will inspire you mechanically-inclined folks.
- DIY Yarn Ball Winder : Daily source of DIY craft projects and inspiration, patterns, how-tos | Craftzine.com
- Why buy a center-pull yarn ball winder when you can make your own? It may not be the most glamorous-looking contraption, but using tools you made yourself is distinctly satisfying.
Yarn Swifts on Amazon
Using the Tools
How does this thing work?
- Using a Niddy Noddy
- This web page has several photos and text describing how to wind yarn on a niddy noddy.
- Making A Skein of Yarn With A Niddy Noddy
- Instructions for using a niddy noddy. This web site also includes an instructional video in additon to the usual diagram and description.
- Ask The Bellwether: How do you wind yarn on a Niddy-Noddy?
- Instructions for winding yarn on a niddy noddy, plus how to make it into a skein once you take it off the niddy noddy. Don't miss the Niddy Noddy ditty.
- ICanSpin.com Winding A Niddy-Noddy
- Two instructional videos for winding a niddy noddy. The first video shows you how to wind yarn onto the niddy noddy. The second video shows how to tie the skein and remove it from the niddy noddy.
- ICanSpin.com Winding Center-Pull Balls On A Nostepinne
- Video instruction for making a center-pull ball of yarn using a nostepinne. It made so much more sense after I saw this video the first time.
- Winding a Ball of Yarn with a Yarn Swift and Ball Winder - How to Use a Yarn Swift and Ball Winder
- How to set up and use a yarn swift and ball winder to make center pull balls. If you have a swift and ball winder but you don't have a clue how to set them up, this web site has excellent step by step instructions.
- Managing Your Yarn
- Carol Huebscher Rhoades covers the basics of using a yarn swift, ball winder, niddy noddy, nostepinne and lazy kate to manage your yarn. This link brings up an Adobe Reader PDF file.
Miscellaneous Accessories and Tools
Make It or Buy It
It is fun and thrifty to make your own tools or is it just a colossal waste of time and money? Voice your opinion here.
Is it better to make your own tools or is it better to buy them?
Fetching blurbs now... please stand byMake them!
Fibrewoman says:
I love to make my own tools! I troll the aisles of hardware, stationary and other stores, looking for ways to repurpose items into tools for my various crafts. However, I also love having purchased tools.
Posted December 13, 2011
AbigailsCrafts says:
I often want to dabble in different crafts, and could never afford to buy the tools every time. I buy knitting needles, but I like to get creative with tools. I even built a heddle beadloom out of cardboard, plastic folders and combs. Cost me less than $3 for materials, the cheapest I've seen for sale was a couple of hundred bucks.
Posted June 03, 2011
Lemming13 says:
I'd buy more tools but my home town has very few shops selling that kind of thing and mail order can be pricy on delivery. So I tend to improvise. I made sure when I bought new kitchen chairs that they were suitable for woolwinding!
Posted February 13, 2011
Buy them!
MindMart says:
When I was using yarn, it got everywhere. This would have come in handy.
Posted July 04, 2011
chemknitsblog says:
I've been wanting a niddy noddy for a while. When I added it to my holiday wish list, my SO thought I was insane!
There are many things I would make myself (dye yarn, making knit items), but I find the tools that I work with to be really important.
Posted November 01, 2010
Reference Books for More Information
Here are a few books that will give you more information on these tools and techniques.
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TopToysForKids
Dec 14, 2011 @ 3:26 pm | delete
- Very cool, I'll have to show this to my sister, she is big into yarn and crocheting and knitting, and all that stuff I know nothing about. :)
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Serj
Nov 15, 2011 @ 1:08 am | delete
- Niddy Noddy? Ball Winder? Nostepinne? lol, never heard of these terms before... looks like an advanced knitting lens here :) Thanks for including definitions :)
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katiecolette
Nov 3, 2011 @ 11:01 am | delete
- I am only a beginner knitter, so I am a little unfamiliar with some of the terms in the lens - great idea to include a "definitions" module in your lens :) Blessed by a Squidoo Angel.
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AbigailsCrafts
Jun 3, 2011 @ 10:36 am | delete
- Really nice ideas here. My bf made my niddy noddy, from bamboo. It can even be folded flat! I tend to use 500ml PET bottles as a nostepinde.
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jennabee25
Apr 21, 2011 @ 11:36 am | delete
- Great lens! This is something I'm going to have to start doing myself eventually, rather than having the yarn shop do it for me.
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Lemming13 Feb 13, 2011 @ 11:22 am | delete
- Such an intersting lens - blessed
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ColdHands Mar 17, 2010 @ 5:34 pm | delete
- I bought a wonderful PVC niddy noddy on Etsy for only $10 from www.whisperingacres.etsy.com. I LOVE it. And the price sure beats having to go get PVC pipe from the hardware store, measure and cut it myself.
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by SydneyH
SydneyH
I am an artist, art lover, knitter, spinner, and computer geek living in the Shoals in northwest Alabama with my ferrets and cat. I'm a lover of natur... more »
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Alden Amos
The Alden Amos Big Book of Handspinning: Being A Compendium of Information, Advice, and Opinions On the Noble Art & Craft
Amazon Price: $26.28 (as of 02/14/2012)
This is the ultimate book for do-it-yourself toolmaking. Not everyone likes Alden Amos' style of writing but there is a wealth of good information in this book.
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