Center-Pull Yarn Balls

Haha. The title makes me giggle. Sorry, showing my immaturity.

Moving along!

So today I'll be showing you how to take a skein of yarn, like the yellow on the left, and turn it into a much easier-to-store yarn ball, like the blue on the right!

If you go through yarn like I do, winding your yarn into balls is a far easier way to store WIP (Work In Progress) yarn, or leftover yarn. This is what I do when I have a project in mind for the yarn already, what I'm working on, or my leftovers.

Another reason that this Center Pull ball is useful would be in the strange instance you need two strands (or four like in the basket below) you would be able to pull from the center and the outside to keep a better gauge on yardage used!

Kept neatly in CAT balls, my fancy yarn will fit snugly in this snazzy basket I made!

SO, to start off, release the ends of your yarn. Try and use the center string if your yarn unravels that way, but more often than not they don't. In this picture the string coming out of the Left side would be the center pull.

Pull a little bit out to get it started. So there isn't too much tension on the yarn. Usually I find a knot in the first 10 yards or so. You actually can see the knot starting to pull out in the picture above. Just unravel it and move along! Nothing to see here.

Lay the yarn across your hand. I lodge the yarn between a couple of my fingers so that it stays put. I cut my poor index finger! I will have to say I love my Mickey Mouse band-aids. I just happen to hone my knives to razor points. Distraction is my worst enemy. ANYWAYS!!

Just a little detail of how I get started. Make sure the yarn stays pretty much between these two fingers. Since this was a brand new skein of yarn I probably should have started with three fingers buuuuut it worked out just fine.

Wrap the yarn about 10 to 20 times, or until you feel you have a pretty decent base layer. Just take care to keep a hold on that center pull of yarn. that string hanging between your fingers is your lifeline. From here you're going to want to start crisscrossing  the yarn.

Same as before, about 10-20 reps each time to help build a good base. I would think the other reason for starting like this would be so that the ball will be sort of uniform in shape. Alternate between the top/bottom area of your fingers and the sides (which I biffed taking a picture of.).

Once you've gone over the center, crisscrossing the yarn in larger bunches you can begin to wrap in more random patterns. I usually start from top to bottom, then around the middle, then finally bottom to top.

I also have an example with three fingers used. A few more rounds (top to bottom, around the middle, then bottom to top) is probably as far as I would go with three fingers.

Slowly remove your index finger (or if one of your other fingers is shorter, remove that one) and reshape the ball if it has gotten out of shape. The boyfriENT said to post this picture because you can see my tattoo :)

Continue in the same fashion. Just keep an eye on the shape and how close to the opening on the bottom you get. As the ball gets larger the more risk you have of a slip off (where the yarn slips off the ball itself).

After series of random patters I slip back into larger blocks. I don't know why.

Progress. Those last two shots were taken one right after another. Seriously. 

Not to bore you with the super repetitive but continue the same way. When you get near the end start wrapping in blocks again.

So that you can tuck the end under the last large block

Slip the whole ball off your fingers and reshape a bit.

Give a good tug at the center string to make sure it's coming out okay.

Push the yarn back into into it's space, leaving a tail.

So that's it!

I have only a little bit more to go. HAHA!

The scallop patterned UFO (UnFinished Object) is a pair of leggings that I won't even get to wear because my feet are evil! So the sock yarn next to it (the colorful one) is for my pair once I figure out how to amend the pattern. UGH!

A video that more than helped me out was this one below. Start it at 1:06 if you want to skip the unraveling a skein of yarn bit. I don't come into much contact with that type of yarn.