ohh what a tangled web we wind...

My uber Spring-timey and yummy Egg Hunt yarn from Material Whirled came to me in a hank (kind of a long twist). I actually won this yarn in their monthly yarn give-away! A lot of yarn you might pick up out there are already in a ball, or skein, or "hour glass". In the case of hand dyed and small fiber creators, you're gonna run into what you see in photo #1 ...

1) Egg Hunt unveiled

Instead of running out to purchase a contraption to wind your yarn for you, you might be lucky enough to have an experienced knitting friend to do the winding for you. Or, you could just jump in with both feet (or hands, in this case) and gain some personal experience from winding it yourself. I might have had an easier time if I'd waited till my hubby got home to borrow his two hands for my first winding endeavor, but what the heck... it's not like I was gonna kill the yarn trying it out! Besides, the tactile sensation of handling the yarn so intimately was really worth a little bit of brow furrowing on my part ;)

2) a simple thing - paper towel cardboard & scissors3) tuck an end into your cut4) begin to wind, keeping it a bit tight
5) too tight, and you might end up with 2 balls of yarn in the end :)
They can always be connected to continue on a project if needed!

To remove the yarn from the paper towel (or TP) cardboard, just bend it in half and slip it out.

Fear not, novice knitters! You can't ruin a yarn ... unless you do something really stoopid, like set it on fire. And even then, depending on the fiber, it might just poof out almost immediately! This was my first shot at hand winding, and certainly not my last. I hope the suggestion that I found and tried here for myself helps you decide to maybe take on a knitting project or activity you thought might be out of your range. Bah! Go for it! :)

xoxo