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I Am Kristin omg thank you. you know last night when I came from dialysis my nieces were doing arts and crafts idont mind that they use my stuff but they tangled my yarn that I got it and sat down to detangle it and it took me and hour this is really helpful thanks
So sorry about needing dialysis -- no fun!! :( I hope you feel better or find a live donor, but prayers and best wishes to you. I found this video because I crochet a little. Make sure to sub to her new crochet only channel now. :) God bless you. ru-vid.com/show-UCAEhf_aQR3dSQIvPwnsqWdg
Love both! Plus for using paper towel roll is you could use a standing paper towel holder to hold the yarn as you crochet. Eliminates dowel and basket! Or TP roll on TP roll holder!
For those of us over 60, can you imagine how much of our lives have been spent winding balls of yarn with our hands!!??!! About 5 years ago I bought a ball/"cake" winder with a crank.... but hurts my wrist & elbow & shoulder, ya know. This is just ✨Sooooo Awesome✨!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻Thanks a million!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻Can't wait to try it!!
How To With Kristin, hi Kristin thank you thank you thank you, with my illness my hands hurt so much and rolling yarn takes forever that when I have rolled a ball of yarn I then have to have a break from crochet of a few hours. your way I might be able to roll the yarn and still carry on doing my lovely crochet without sitting in pain. God Bless you my lovely have a lovely day xxxxx
I never had a problem with the skein. I just take the inside end of the yarn and there is nothing smoother. I only make balls to entertain the cats while I work, sometimes.
I took the cardboard tube left over from gift wrapping, cut it to just shorter than the inside of a shoe box, inserted the whisk attachment from my hand mixer and put that into my drill instead of a bit!! Works WONDERS and I get the full control over the trigger of the drill vs. pretty easily losing control over the hand mixer since you can’t run it slower!!
I totally used the paper towel way last week! The hand mixer thing is genius and a lot more fun. I hand wrapped that nightmare! I didn't have a nice dowel and bucket... I used a hanger! I broke the bottom corner of the hanger and slid my roll on it! Used a rubber band (tape works too) to keep it from sliding off! Then I hung the hanger on the edge of my chair and it totally worked!
I seriously love this idea! I don't have a hand mixer, I have a stand up mixer with a big fat wide whisk but I do have a small whisk that actually went to a hand mixer I used to have so I put that in my drill and was able to use it the same way without using the PVC pipe
Convenient, fast, time saver, fun to do, very useful, clever, excellent idea, perfect! I don't understand the thumbs down. Thank you so very much for sharing this!
OMG....where have you been all my life?!?!! This is such a game changer; absolutely “turned”🙄 my “ugh...knot again” 😬 to, okay skein bring it!! Thanks so, so much; no more icing and pain creams👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼💯%💛
You have made my year !!! I have 3 bus tubes full of yarn that i keep collecting over the years I keep trying to roll it up , and sort it out , but no matter how much i try every spring , it ALWAYS gets tangled with each other . I was just telling my husband today , that i would love to get a yarn winder , Well , we looked them up and they cost so much money , He came across your site , and i am happier than a big in slop right now ! lol He is downstairs right now rounding up PC pipe for me . THANK YOU SO MUCH ... you have made my life tangle free ! lol Now i can be a happy hooker ... and enjoy it ! LOL
Yvonne Batterson in the knitting and crocheting world a hooker has traditionally been a crocheter. Sometimes words have more than one meaning and we need to keep our minds out of the gutters and preserve our traditions.
Rose Ray A hooker in the crochet world is a person who crochets because the object we use to crochet with is called a crochet hook. Don't assume she meant that she's a true selling for sex hooker, don't talk about things you obviously know nothing about. I have a Facebook group called Knotty Hookers, but we're not whores, we're happy hookers.
This is what I’m looking for!!! I have a tiny budget & can’t afford some of the basics with my rug tufting journey. This has made my day! Thank you!!! XX
Love it! I've been cheating with a drill and wooden dowels forever. A 3/8 wooden dowel will fit into the drill, stay straight & wind quickly! Instead of a basket I use 1 liter (or 2 liter) soda bottles to hold yarn. Cut off the bottom 2" of bottle. Then I hole punch a hole about 3" up from the cut off bottom. Insert your yarn in bottle, feed end of yarn through hole, and fit the bottom back on the bottle. I've stacked up 9 bottles in a paper grocery bag, and been able to use the bottom colors without having to move everything around. Happy rolling!!
Lynn B I was just going to share this same idea! I don't like PVC pipe (call me paranoid bc of the chemicals), so I wanted an idea where I could use a natural material.
I had bought some skeins of yarn at a specialty store. She would only wind one for me like I was asking so much. Thanks to you I never have to "bother" her again. Plus with your demonstration I received service with a smile!
Super ideas, both the mixer and the drill - I have both already so I will try it with both to see which one I like best! Also, your idea at the end, of using the basket and "dowel" to keep your yarn from getting all bunched up is a great idea. I've seen those baskets at the Dollar Tree so I'll be picking one up on my next visit to the store! Also, by using the basket idea it will keep my cat away from my yarn ball - he loves my yarn and likes to grab it, so this will help me keep him away from it better, super great idea! Thanks for sharing!
I just had to start a project over and used the hand mixer/paper towel roll method and it worked AMAZINGLY! Saved me heaps of time. I had my daughter unravel the blanket while I rolled it with the mixer. Thank you soooooo much for saving me like an hour or more of time!
I can't believe the ease of this yarn winding method!!! I cannot tell you the hours (and years) spent unraveling yarn, rolling it on my hands, etc...this method is fantastic! I'm going to try it tonight for sure!
Hi Kristin. I just now came along this video, I love it!! I’m 67, n do not wind yarn well these days. Thanks for this greAt idea! I shall try the mixer method first!! ❤️
Thank YOU SOOOOO Much for sharing this tip!!!! I almost gave up with knitting because of the pain of winding but you omgolly you saved me! THank you thank you thank you! A Million thumps up!!!! God Bless YOU!
excellent tips - I really like the tip to insert the dowel through the roll and holes in the basket - I know the nightmare - I crochet and knit and weave - you're a life saver - THANK YOU!
I generally don't mind rolling yarn into balls,I'm getting better at working the skeins nearly to the end without having to, but i kinda find rolling them while watching a movie or something kinda relaxing... However... I have stolen my husbands drill from time to time when working on a large project with many colors.. haha.. I usually just stick a new unsharpened pencil into the drill, tape the end of the yarn to the other end of the pencil then spin away! being careful to stay near the center as much as possible, if your careful not to lose the taped end, you can pull the pencil out for a center pull ball, or leave it in to have skeins like yours! Altho i must admit the kitchen mixer and the paper towel tube is pretty brilliant! i know a few ladies who think drills are scary, but use their mixer all the time! lol
Willlabee thanks so much for sharing this,you are very creative and you explain so good so we can understand,you have helped me and my granddaughters with this,thanks.👏✅🤗
Lol, I tried this based upon a facebook post I saw a few months back. Unfortunately, there weren't any real directions... so there I am with my hand mixer and I have yarn flying all around the kitchen, getting wrapped around my mixing paddle, etc. My family is laughing hysterically. That little tip about holding onto the yarn to guide it onto the roll? Priceless. Thanks!
Who would of thunk it. such a time saver .thank you .I'm a 83 yrs old . have been kniting since I was 14. isnt wonderful what science can do for one these days.hee hee.
Great tips thank you! My favourite way of rolling a ball of yarn is making my hubby hold it, while I roll it. He deals with the knots and I just roll it into a ball. Makes him spend time with me once in a while too! LOL
Great video, reminds me of winding bobbin in my sewing machine.. same concept!! So cool, I’m crocheting a king size blanket and turning these skeins into balls are a nightmare so thanks for sharing your idea and time with us 💕💕
Cool video!!!! you could also skip the pvc pipe all together and just pop a dowel in the drill, if you wanted to get extra crafty w some hot glue you can even put a circular piece of plastic on the end towards the drill to prevent yarn going into the drill end, this is how I get by not having extra bobbins when spinning yarn on a spinning wheel
If you can't figure out a trick, you could always purchase hand mixers used for under five dollars nowadays. Not a lot of money for a neat time/strain saving technique!
I decided to place my reply under the main listing so more people can see it. This was in response to Cody's concern about keeping the yarn under tension: True Cody. I saw a video on RU-vid a couple of years ago where, rather than pulling from the middle or off-winding the skein, the user inserted a long knitting needle through the center of the skein lengthwise, then used the knitting needle like Kristen used her dowl. I either use the basket idea or I get a cardboard box and notch it to lay the knitting needle in, then feed from the outside instead of trying to find the center pull or deal with the knots. It has worked best for me with skeins like Vanna's Choice or Bernat's where finding the center pull is nearly impossible, but they do tend to unwind a little lopsidedly. Also, I carry my knitting work in a plastic file box with a handle and I found that the knitting needle fits very nicely from side to side of the box while the cover is open.
I'm so excited to try this. I was trying to find a useful reason to buy a hand mixer. Since I cannot bake at all. Now This is it :) I can wind my 2 or 4 strands of worsted weight together by tying a knot to make DIY bulky yarn. I have all the skiens separated in shopping bags taking up too much room. I will do that and your yarn bowl on a lower hole to be able stack it. I will find a thick cardboard box. Then use Contac adhesive paper to decorate it from the Dollar store with a few strategically placed holes. So That the box won't get worn out too quickly. That way I can use it for my multicolor projects
Cody Wong good point thanks for your input. In that case I will remove the yarn from the paper towel insert. That way it should shrink back to keep the yarn flexibility. But I think it's the idea of the year! Fantastic.
True Cody. I saw a video on RU-vid a couple of years ago where, rather than pulling from the middle or off-winding the skein, the user inserted a long knitting needle through the center of the skein, then used the knitting needle like Kristen used her dowl. I either use the basket idea or I get a cardboard box and notch it to lay the knitting needle in, then feed from the outside instead of trying to find the center pull or deal with the knots. It has worked best for me with skeins like Vanna's Choice or Bernat's where finding the center pull is nearly impossible, but they do tend to unwind a little lopsidedly. Also, I carry my knitting work in a plastic file box with a handle and I found that the knitting needle fits very nicely from side to side of the box while the cover is open.
I appreciate the speed of this technique, but most of us who have been knitting since before you were born understand that the yarn fibers can be broken and stretched easily so that is why the prepping of the yarn is done by hand. The more modern yarns that are full of manmade acrylic fiber (yuck) can withstand this whipping about, no doubt. But the woolens and alpacas etc are natural fibers that this method might pre-stretch out/ break fibers of. Just a mention.
What a great idea. It can be applied to other crafts and projects as well. Thank you for sharing this wonderful way to deal with yard, threads, ribbon etc. The idea is limitless.
You can use PVC pipe if you don't have toilet paper rolls very often... ? Who has PVC pipe but not toilet paper rolls? Though to be fair, we have a drill and PVC pipe, but I'm not sure about a hand mixer.
lol that’s actually funny! I always try to give people multiple options because with this particular DIY, a lot of people forget to save toilet paper rolls and just throw them out.
Oh my goodness!!! Super helpful!!! I am in the middle of a huge project and tangled yarn is a headache! Thanks so much for sharing this hack!!!!! Jessica
I have to say this that after a long time I saw something that was really really a hack and gave me so many idea for my other problems i wish I could give you three thumbs up
Fabulous and fun! Aren't you a smart cookie?! I alway wind my yarn around paper tubes, and I never look forward to doing it, but this makes me want to get into my yarn stash and do them all!!
I don't knit or crochet, just came across this video. This is soooo soooo brilliant! This can be a life saver to someone who knit a lot and wind their yarn manually or even using a manual yarn winder! Great job!
I have been doing the hand method and then thought I will go here and see if there is an easier way! Seen the yarn winder and was fixing to order me one -- until I came across your video! Since my husband has several drills -- do think I am going to you the pipe method! Thank you so MUCH and looking forward to more of your videos!!
I just saw this video and I think it’s so cool. I will definitely use this method next time I need to roll a ball of yarn. Thanks so much for the tip! 🙋🏻♀️❤️
Kristin you are so much fun to watch. I love both ideas!!! Can't wait to borrow my hubby's drill and have some fun rolling yarn. Thanks so much for sharing your creative ideas with the rest of us. You are my yarn rolling hero! ")
this idea is so brilliant! I want to create a widget out of a paper box. But I absolutely love the combination with the plastic case to make it role better ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
OMG! Kristin has revolutionized the yarn winding task! I have improved upon it slightly: Here goes:Get yourself as many 4' pool noodles as you can afford. At $1.00 each at the Dollar Store! I cut mine into five 9" lengths using a bread or serrated knife. All you have to do is make a 2-3" slit on one end, push the yarn into the hole (tape it also if you want to) and manually wrap yarn to get it started and away you go! For the last half hour I wound six half to full skeins of yarn. I was lucky enough to have a corkscrew attachment on my mixer - that fit exactly into the noodle's hole. Even though I wound old and new skeins, every skein had a knot, so you have to be careful and watch/feel for it - then you'd have to stop and unwind and remove the knot and begin again. Keep your finger/thumb on the stop switch because those knots WILL show up. I am so thrilled with this method, I am tempted to wind every single ball/skein of yarn I have, and that is a LOT! I also love Kristin's idea of the dowel in the plastic bin (also available at the Dollar Store). I'm sure you all have had the frustration of pulling the yarn, getting it tangled, picking out the knot, and having it end up in a mess of a pile. Then I just quit and go to bed! Many thanks to Kristin for giving me this fantastic idea. I so wanted to share this easy yarn winding way with all of you knitters/crocheters out there. I hope this helps you with your yarn stash - it did mine!All the best,Mary, 66 and retired!kittyfisher120@gmail.com
I'm a newbie at crocheting and I just used an entire roll of yarn to attempt to make a blanket. After a few lines and many mistakes, I got so frustrated and pulled the entire lines apart. I wanted to see how to make a ball and I stumbled on your site. WOW, what a great idea! As soon as I run out of a roll of paper towels, I will definitely try this. This is brilliant!!!
I just got thru 4 days of madness trying to use up my stash by replacing super bulky yarn with 8 different strands of assorted yarn in beautiful colors. The tangles of just combining these were not to be believed. The first cowl just knit from the balls in a basket with lots of exit holes. The second I pre-wound all the yarn before I started to knit. It was so hard to do because different yarns have different tensions. In knitting from this I was slowed down considerably to untangle untangle untangle, I was super angry by the end. Never again. I was charmed by your idea years ago and love it. Also bought a cake winder for center pull (which also can get tangled). So instead of doing complicated knitting patterns and frog a lot, I do these yarn combos in stockinette and garter and untangle a lot. But after a few, I have had enough multiple strands for a while. Thanx, love the basket idea applied this way.
thanks so much for sharing I never would have thought of that now I know what to do I used to spend almost 3 to 4 hours rolling a ball of yarn especially the giant ones.
Probably the most ingeniously simple remedy for a ball rolling issue I've seen. I've looked at the winding/crank tutorials and their way to intricate and complicated. You've obviously learned that less fuss is a must🤘🙂