How to transform a skein to a ball?

What is the best way to transform a skein into a knittable ball of wool? With the first skein I had encountered (TiggerSocks) my daughter had to sit with it around her outstretched arms. She was keen to start with but by the time I was half unwound she was fed up and her arms ached. Are there any tricks of the trade someone can pass on to me?

if she couldn't persuade anyone to hold their arms out for ages, my mother used to use two dining chairs back to back with the skein stretched over the backs.

I read somewhere that someone had got around this problem by taking a piece of wood and banging in two long, thick nails at the appropriate distance apart. Then, the skein is hooked around the nails and unwound into a ball.

I haven't tried that myself though. I tend to unwrap the skin carefully and arrange it loose on the desk. If I'm careful to get the correct end of the yarn, I can generally manage to transform it into a ball without too much difficulty. If you get the wrong end though, you can sometimes end up with more knots than are good for your sanity .

I sit cross legged with the yarn looped over my knees:o

LisaH xxx

Oh Lisa! What a mental picture:rolleyes:

I used to sit with the wool round my knees in a very undignified position but have just bought a swift and ball winder. I never used to think they were worth the expense, but now I have them I wonder how I coped before I got them!

I really want a ball winder. I've seen exactly the one I want too on one of the blogs. From a purely aesthetic point of view, I really am rather enamoured of the end product; far prettier than my feeble attempts which end up looking rather like the cats have been swatting them around the house for a few hours.

6pm today, I was bored and thought I would make a start on a pair of socks from the Curious Yarns sock kit I bought. The yarn was wound into a skein. 'Oh, I've never used yarn that is in a skein before.' I thought. 'I'm sure if I just untwist it, I will be able to wind it into a ball and start knitting.'

How wrong was I. Is there some magical way of unwinding a skein that I don't know about? It is now 12:30 am and I am still trying to untangle the mess that I made and make some kind of ball out of the yarn. I'm guessing I won't be finished unwinding until 2am. That will be 8 hours of unwinding! Blokey is sat at the other end of the sofa taking his turn now as I have such bad wrist ache!

I'm sure there is a magical really easy way of doing this....does anyone know and care to enlighten me???

It depends on the yarn. Some is more tricky to unwind than others. The fluffy mohair-type yarn is a particular nightmare, and for some reason I had problems with Colinette's Giotto; it's a ribbon yarn, and I think it was quite staticy.

What I tend to do is lay it flat on the desk, unwind a few metres into a small pile by the side of the skein, then wind that bit into a ball. I then put the ball down, carefully unwind a few more metres, then continue with the ball winding. Repeat as required.

The key thing is to watch the yarn as it's unwinding from the skein; make sure the skein isn't twisted, and if you spot that it is then stop what you're doing straight away and untwist til it lays flat again.

If you have another pair of hands, then hook the skein over them and wind the ball while the other person has the skein over their outstretched hands. The back of a chair can work in a similar way too.

I don't think there's a magical way to avoid the knots; at least if there is, I certainly haven't found it.

What you need to do is to stretch it out over something to stop it all coiling back together while you wind. If Blokey's about his arms held out with his hands at the appropriate distance is just about perfect.

When you come to untwist it initially, some of them need you to turn the 'loop' of yarn back on itself to allow the yarn to come unwound quickly and easily, but with others all you have to do is physically untwist and prop the hank open (think chair back if you haven't got Blokey about) then wind for all you're worth before everyone's arms get tired.

I know that skeins are the trendy way to present your expensive yarn for the spinning companies, but I've never really seen the attraction, and would prefer stuff already balled up or on cones (yes, I know that's like inviting the devil to stay, but I used to use knitting machines lots, and they're ever so convenient), and I would thoroughly recommend getting a ball winder if you're going to be doing this. They make the whole job last about 5 minutes per hank.

I made myself a swift - it makes the world of difference, as I kept having problems with skeins getting tangled when I tried to wind them into a ball by hand.

I made myself a swift - it makes the world of difference, as I kept having problems with skeins getting tangled when I tried to wind them into a ball by hand.

How did you make it? I'd like to have a go at making one too.