How to Wind a Skein of Yarn Yourself

Thanks for the comments on my amaryllis. The bulb was a present for Christmas 2013 and it flowered early in 2014 and then again shortly afterwards. There has been nothing since then until now. It seems like a strange time of year for it to be flowering! Maybe it's because we are having such strange weather.

My holiday is quickly becoming a distant memory so I'd better get on and tell you a bit about it. We started off by staying two nights in the Village Inn in Arrochar. We stayed there last September as well. It's a lovely place to stop off for a day or two, to break the journey. We arrived on Sunday, May 10th. On the Monday we got the bus into Glasgow just to mosey round a bit and do some shopping. The husband bought me two pairs of boots for my birthday (which was last Thursday).

While we were waiting until it was time to have dinner, I decided to start rolling some of the cotton skeins for my sister-in-law's crocheted bag. I got myself nicely seated at the fire in a big leather chair and the husband took lots of photos. So this is how I roll a skein of yarn into a ball using only my own hands.

The skein comes like this; twisted and with one end tucked in.

Pull out the end that's tucked in ....

... and untwist the skein.

If you hold it up, it will just untwist itself.

My skein had a paper label attached; remove any labels.

Now find the place where the two ends of the skein have been used to tie it all up and keep it together.

Just undo the knot or loop.

Normally, if you are holding a skein for someone else to wind, you hold it like this; stretched between your two hands.

If you're going to roll it yourself you need your hands to do the rolling so you have to hold the skein between your wrists. On this occasion I used the label for starting to wind the yarn round. You can just wind it round your fingers if you prefer. Here goes  ...

... keep winding.

When you are winding the yarn across the bottom of the skein and approaching the left hand, use the right hand to lift the yarn round your wrist.

Continue winding the yarn across the top of the skein.

The yarn just works easily across the top of the skein ...

... and then slips over the right hand so you can continue winding across the bottom of the skein.

Now we've reached the left hand side again ...

... so give the yarn a bit of a lift round the left hand ...

... and continue winding across the top of the skein.

Every so often give the skein a good straighten out by stretching your hands apart as far as possible.

 Here I am, winding so fast my hands are a blur!

I hope you can follow what I was doing. It isn't easy to explain without actually being there with you.

That was just the first ball I needed wound! Before I could start crocheting the bag I had to wind another six skeins.

Well, that the just the start of my holiday and not very holiday-ish at all so far. I'll be back with more about the holiday and progress on the crocheting of the bag.

Until the next time! Which, hopefully, won't be too long.