More on centerpull balls

I don't think I've seen commercial yarn in hanks for years! Only home spun yarn.

Mary

We have three nearby "charity shops" - Salvation Army, Good Will and a one run by a local home for battered women. The first two never have knitting stuff, the one run by the home for battered women often has yarn. I get most of my quilting stuff at the fist two, so I am not about to say anything bad about them.

Aar>>>

The Cottage Craft Yarns that I like, come in tied skeins that must be balled before they tangle! The last time I was knitting in the backroom at Big Sky Yarns, the clerk must have some in 3 or 4 times (over 3 hours) to wind different yarns that customers had bought as skeins and wanted wound into balls. So I would say that there is still some traffic in commercial yarns sold in loose skeins.

I like skeins for some yarns because they can be washed and dyed.

Aaron

Quite a lot of the more expensive yarns in the US come in hanks. Especially the thinner laceweight ones.

sue

I was wondereing how your surgery went.....sorry to hear this one was not as good but hope your on the mend soon!

Donna

Good luck with that! Or as my son and his friends say... "Let me know how that goes!" ;o)

Well I hope your healing comes along in leaps and bounds now that the nice warmer weather time of the year is here. :o)

Yes but it's hard to find commercial yarn in skeins here. Hand spun wool is a different matter.

When I was a child all bought wool was in hanks, then winders were invented and the balls took off. As it were.

Mary

I'm in England. Yorkshire in fact, the home of wool :-)

Mary

Thanks Donna. I'm gradually catching up on replies to e-mails too - honest! :-)

I gathered that. That's why I mentioned the US...

sue

As a child in Scotland I remember watching my mother and grandmother wind balls from big hanks of yarn. Come to think of it, I remember they wound the wool loosely. I tend to wind tight. Guess I never asked why they wound the balls the way they did.

Murielle

LOL sure I believe you ;-).....take your time.

My DH "helped" me once winding yarn in balls, and when he finished the ball could have been used as a baseball, it was wound so tight..after that, I let him do his thing (watching baseball) and I went back into living room and continued with my knitting..easier that way!

Donna in S. Indiana

I was pawing through the stash recently for yarn to use in a knitting class, and grabbed a bunch of balls that I wound a couple of years ago. They were center pull then. But over time, the cumulative tension of the yarn had collapsed the centers, and last week, I could not get to the starting yarn out. I had to rewind them. Some of us need to be reminded of the basics every so often.

Aaron

Now if you could only convince commercial yarn ball producers to do that, live would be so much easier. :-)

Even thought I use mine relatively soon, I leave about a 6 inch or more tail out so I can find it.

sue

It would be harder to do with commercial yarn; the loose end could catch on things and pull out too much. A lot of people complain about finding the end in them, but I don't have much trouble. Sure you don't get just the end pulling out several more yards usually, but you're going to knit it anyway.... If there's way too much, I wind it into a butterfly and stick it back into the center.

sue