yarn skeins and balls

Hi!

I=C2=B4m here while winding a yarn skein into a ball (hope I wrote all=20 right). It=C2=B4s a lovely and VERY expensive linen yarn I=C2=B4m using f= or a bag. I use a capsized stool for this use and I=C2=B4m proud of this low tech=20 solution :-) DH looked at me, very happy that he doesn=C2=B4t have to sit keeping the =

skein (I wouldn=C2=B4t ask anyway, since I don=C2=B4t like myself doing t= hat). He asked me: why do the sell skeins instead of ready balls? I don=C2=B4t have a answer, maybe you do...

Hugs,

Anna Maria

Reply to
Anna MCM
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I don't have an answer to the skeins vs. balls question, sorry.

Are you using Euroflax linen yarn? I bought a skein of that and spent *days* trying to untangle it when winding it into a ball.

I ended up buying a swift and ballwinder.

Yep, that was a *very* expensive skein of linen yarn! lol

I made a knitted shopping bag with the linen. And that's

*another* story of trials and tribulations until I finally got it finished!

Nyssa, who now has a very nice knitted shopping bag she's afraid to use because it might get messed up At River's End

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Reply to
Nyssa

Hi Anna Maria,

I don't have an answer about a skein or ball of yarn, but it does sound very pretty.

Hugs,

Nora

Reply to
norabalcer

Hi Nyssa!

It?s a Swedish yarn called Kalinka. To my astonishment it didn?t tangle at all (I am a master in tangling=20 yarn), but it DOES split :-( It?s not difficult to work with this yarn, but it requires more energy=20 that cotton yarn anyway (my shoulders hurt a little bit now). I?m using=20 a double strain, which doesn?t makes things easy... The little bag is coming out lovely, but I guess I?ll be afraid as well=20 of using it.

Anyway I?m very happy to use something really new to me as linen yarn...

The shop where I bought it is a real tentation place. I?ve seen that=20 they have Japanese silk yarn made from old kimonos.I don?t know how long =

I can resist to that LOL

Hugs,

Anna Maria

Reply to
Anna MCM

Hi Nora!

Thanks!

Hugs,

Anna Maria

Reply to
Anna MCM

Linen is very slippery so a tied skein is easier to handle from supplier to seller to buyer...although I've no real reason as to why it's left in skeins. As a spinner we could wind ours straight into balls, but have to wind a skein first in order to wash it, it has to be washed to set the twist, then if I send any to anyone I leave it in a skein as it is easier send, or carry or whatever..I loop mine over my knees to wind up into balls....I dont find it any real problem, and I have a swift and ball winder too..large amounts I do put on the swift or across the top of two dining room chairs, saves up tipping them, if you have one seat facing one way and one seat the other the backs of the chairs can be moved across each other to put the skein on, then gradually one chair moved out to bring up the slack....

I´m here while winding a yarn skein into a ball (hope I wrote all right). It´s a lovely and VERY expensive linen yarn I´m using for a bag. I use a capsized stool for this use and I´m proud of this low tech solution :-) DH looked at me, very happy that he doesn´t have to sit keeping the skein (I wouldn´t ask anyway, since I don´t like myself doing that). He asked me: why do the sell skeins instead of ready balls? I don´t have a answer, maybe you do...

Hugs,

Anna Maria

Reply to
Cher

I´m here while winding a yarn skein into a ball (hope I wrote all right). It´s a lovely and VERY expensive linen yarn I´m using for a bag. I use a capsized stool for this use and I´m proud of this low tech solution :-) DH looked at me, very happy that he doesn´t have to sit keeping the skein (I wouldn´t ask anyway, since I don´t like myself doing that). He asked me: why do the sell skeins instead of ready balls? I don´t have a answer, maybe you do...

Hugs,

Anna Maria

I did some searching on the question of why yarns are sold in different forms and found

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gives one person's theory on the reason. She says the yarn would getmore creases if it has been wound into a skein rather than left in a hank.I'm rather skeptical of this as a reason. Note that what she calls a hank,others call a skein. As I looked at more search results, I can see thatthere is not universal agreement on the meaning of the hank, skein and ball.There is a better explanation at
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why yarns are put up in various forms.Another interesting site I found at
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which explains how to usean electric mixer as a ball winder. Anyone want to try it?Just recently, I learned about a great alternative to a swift which usingsomething I already had - a lamp shade. Assuming you have one with theproper circumference, lay the skein or hank of yarn around it and unscrewthe finial just enough so the shade will rotate freely. And away you go!

Reply to
Tante Jan

I thought that a hank and a skein are two different words for the same thing.

I would guess at this, and put my 5 cents worth in. I think that it depends on the set up in the factory. Also fancy exspensive yarns are to costly to sell as skeins or hanks. Knitteres and weavers, may want to just buy small quantities at the time. Or when you are doing a project with many colours, again it is cheaper when you can buy it in small quantities. Balls can be sold in smaller quantities, and are maybe easier to pack and store.

Els

Reply to
Els van Dam

Certainly is an interesting subject Els isn't it...and like you say, it depends on the factory setup, some over here, spin dye and roll it all into a ball all in one go, plus the few wool shops there are about now, have little pigeon type holes for displaying the balls in, the only hanks or skeins I see around now, are either embroidery threads or handspun and dyed yarns, I haven't seen a commercial hank/skein for many years, but maybe they do these in bigger towns like London or something, in an odd little specialist yarn shop....I don't know..

Cheers.....Cher

Reply to
Cher

I know that some Rowan yarns are sold in skeins, and others are in balls. I do know that winding skeins is a right royal pain, but the arms of a carver chair are really useful. It's just that the family aren't keen on a carver chair in the middle of the living room for the time it takes to wind a project's worth of yarn. Still they humour me, saves me chewing their heads off with frustration at not being able to knit/crochet/whatever! Love Christine

Reply to
Christine in Kent, Garden of

The articles are really fascinating! I guess that my linen yarn come into skeins mainly for two reasons: a) ball winding industrial machines are expensive and difficult to find on the market b) linen (at least this one) is slippery and difficult to wind in balls.

Hugs,

Anna Maria

Reply to
Anna MCM

In Britain it is only the last few years that I have come across wool *not* ready-wound into balls, and it is only the more expensive makes that are in skeins and hanks. So things like Debbie Bliss and some Rowan yarns come in small diameter skeins, and other Rowan wools come in hanks. Other mid-range makes, like Sirdar and Patons, only come in balls, and similarly the cheap acrylics are all balls. Actually even some premium wool is in balls.

In the early '80s I bought lots of oddments for a blanket I was knitting, and I don't remember ever seeing a hank or a skein. Even when we bought some Swaledale wool in Swaledale it was in balls, and that would have come from a small scale-spinner.

My mum has told me that when she was a teenager - the age I was in the '80s - most yarn had to be wound at home.

When I went to Belgium recently (I should write that up), there was a mix between balls and skeins for the European makes.

Reply to
Penny Gaines

I thought that too!

From my own definition I have only ever seen skeins/hanks sold in stores. I consider a ball what the yarn looks like after I wind it (loosely at first) around two or three fingers for a few rounds then take it off the fingers and continue to roll it up into actual ball shapes... and I don't remember ever seeing yarn sold that way. Depending on the yarn and the project I'm working on at the time, I sometimes find it easier to use when it's wound up into balls. Most often though, the yarn I wind up into balls is the smaller amounts I have left over after a project is finished.

Gemini

Reply to
Matthew Hollands

LOL I use the tops of two of my chairs, and the top at each end protrudes a little so the skein fits onto it quite well...you could however make up a piece of wood with dowels at each end the right length apart, and have this on the floor....and wind away in peace....lol

I'll try and work out the dimension to my X one that sits into a base and just goes around the X folds flat for storage..takes up no room at all, and even expands to tighten up the skein...I'll write it out as clear as I can and post it on here with a pic on oneof my blogs with it on, so that you can see what I mean...

cheers.....cher

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>> > which gives one person's theory on the reason. She says the yarnwould> > get

Reply to
Cher

I ALWAYS re-work skeins and hanks into balls before knitting or crocheting, because I drop the ball into a ceramic pot next to my favorite chair and work from that. The pot keeps the ball from rolling anywhere inconvenient, and holds the piece of knitting, too, when I'm not working on it. When I do multi-color work I get out the mixing bowls and pop a ball into a bowl -- very convenient!

Reply to
Mary

The 2 explanations I've heard are that the yarn "shows off" better in a skein (you can see more of the color & texture than you could in a ball) and that the yarn sort of gets stretched out when it is balled up from the skein, so you should leave it in the skein until close to the time you wish to knit it? I think they are both just opinions of knitters.... Karen G.

Reply to
Karen

Reply to
Mary

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