Notice the yarn coming out of the center of the ball.

When you are working with a hank (a long ring of yarn that is not sold in a ball) or a skein (more of a figure eight wound portion of yarn) you can easily get into trouble where you find your yarn has become tangled and you have to stop what you’re doing and untangle yourself. I had balled my yarn before -particularly when I have a hank that needs to be balled anyway, but I’d just wound it tightly around and around until I had a pretty ball of yarn to work with.

This did cut out my tangle time for the most part, but my tightly rolled ball of yarn would roll all over the place, unwinding while I worked BUT the reason I tried the “center pull” yarn ball is because I read that winding your ball tightly can cause your yarn to stretch and when you knit it -your yarn will then spring back, causing your knitted garment to pucker or distort! This made complete sense to me. So -the technique for your center pull ball of yarn will take care of stretching your yarn, plus it will keep it from tangling.

There is one more very cool thing it will do for you after it has cleaned your house and done the laundry as well. This cool little ball will stay in one place while you knit like one quiet disciplined puppy. The yarn will pull with ease from the center of the ball while the ball stays still! I love them and will always make a center pull yarn ball from now on.

Here is how you do it in my own words:

*Weave and wind very loosely.

1. Leaving a long tail of yarn
2. hold the tail of yarn in your left hand
3. with right hand, weave yarn over and under fingers on left hand
4. do this for 10 “rows” so your left hand is almost covered from base of fingers to tips with woven yarn -side by side
5. slide the yarn off the fingers of your left hand and fold in half
6. start winding your yarn very loosely into a ball avoiding the yarn tail you have sticking out

Here is a similar technique where you use your thumb as a placeholder for the “tail” of your yarn while you wind. This one has some pictures.

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