How to Hand Roll a Center Pull Ball

I have the hardest time keeping my yarn organized. For some reason, I always get the skeins that disintegrate the moment I start to unwind them, so I end up with a Pigpen-worthy mess of yarn all over my room. Because of this, I looked all over the place for the right way to roll a yarn ball, but came up with only more problems than I had before. So I decided to post a tutorial on how I do it in case there is someone out there like me that has major issues with yarn chaos.



Step One:

Grab your mess of yarn and find the end of it. Now look at your hand. See the middle three fingers? These are going to be your nostepinne AKA the thingy you wrap the yarn around. Slip your yarn through your pointer and middle fingers and pinch down to keep it in place. Make sure to leave out a decent length of the end of your yarn so it doesn't get lost in the winding process. That will be the center pull end of your ball of yarn!

Pinch that yarn!

Step Two:

Start to loosely wrap your yarn around your three fingers, making sure not to wind any over the end you want to be your center pull. Keep doing this until you have a decent little fluffy chunk of yarn.

I'd wrap just a little bit more than I did in the picture.

 

Step Three:

Gently take the wrapped yarn off of your fingers, making sure not to unwrap it. Place the wrapped yarn in between your pointer & middle fingers, making sure the wraps are perpendicular with your fingers.

Perpendicular? Why yes, I think it is.

Step Four:

Start wrapping around your three fingers like before. Keep doing so until you have an awkwardly adorable mini ball of yarn that could fall apart if someone looked at it wrong.

Innit cute? He needs a few more wraps though.

Step Five:

Gently pull the yarn ball off of your fingers so that you have your awkward mini ball of yarn. This is basically your base to wrap around.

I usually wrap better than this, I promise.

Step Six:

Now you can start to wrap your ball. I wrap about 6-7 times one way, shift the ball & then another 6-7 times another way. Pay attention to where your center pull end is coming out of your ball of yarn before you start wrapping. Try not to wrap over it or get it lost when you wrap the yarn around the ball.

Almost done.

Step Seven:

Keep wrapping until all your yarn is used up! Now stop and admire your work. Give yourself a pat on the back and let that sigh you've been holding in escape. All done! You can use either end to crochet or knit with or even both if you're wanting to make something super thick. But this way, at least you have the option and it wasn't that hard to do!

Much better.

Enjoy your less messy yarn collection! Next time, I'll teach you guys how I keep those pesky balls of yarn from unwinding all over the place.


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