Yarn winding . . .

So Chris turns to me one day, very slyly, and says, "Would you use a yarn winder, if you had one?"
"No, not really", I told him.
I felt bad afterwards, when I realized that he was 1) proving his knowledge of the knitting world and had clearly looked at the Webs catalogue that came that week, and 2) trying to lock down a birthday present for me. Bless 'im.

Back-story . . .
Sometimes yarn comes in balls (or "cakes") . . .

sometimes yarn comes in center-pulled skeins . . .

and sometimes it comes in hanks . . .


Personally, I find the hank the most annoying, because you can't just pull the end from it and knit away like a center-pull skein. You have to undo it and ball it.

Really nice yarn often comes in hanks. Sometimes they have a winder in the store, so when you buy it, they will ball it for you.

"Real" knitters will buy their own winders or "swifts" and do it at home.


 . . . I am not that fancy. I end up wrapping the hank around my feet and rolling it myself.
Sometimes I ask Chris to help . . .

This works too:


But I don't buy enough fancy yarn to make a swift a practical purchase.  However . . .

I came across this posting on the Craftzine blog . . .

DIY Yarn Ball Winder


Which led me to . . .

DYI Yarn Swift: desperate measures


But even better . . .

Winding a skein into a centre-pull ball


And, Chris, you are not off the hook for my birthday. Sorry.