If you had to guess which of these balls was wound on a ball winder and which on a hand, what would you think? Doesn't really matter, does it. What matters is do they both 'work' as center- pulls and was the hand method worthwhile? Yes to both!
I had heard that yarn could be hand-wound into a center-pull ball but until I saw Sandra at Wednesday night Knitting at Koffi whip one up in next to no time and produce a neat, stackable, self-sufficent ball, it never occured to me that you could turn the ball on a digit: such epiphanies keep me humble.
Here is what you do. Hold loose end in palm of hand; wrap yarn, loosely, a few times around thumb as shown.
Continue to wrap, sort of going from bottom left to top right; every few wraps give the emerging ball a twist to the right so it slides around the thumb about a quarter turn.
You can see the shape of the ball starting to happen and the quarter turns begin to make sense.
It is getting bigger and with this thickness of wool I found that the wraps worked better to do them more horizontal around the thumb than on a vertical angle.
Here it is nearing the end of the original skein.
The ball on the right is the one just completed ; the one on the left was a first try. They get more organized or something. It is very meditative.
Next I had to try it with thinner yarn and this is a ball in progress. It is lovely to watch the colours parade by. Which brings us back to the first photo and the ball on the left as being the one hand – made.
I got to thinking that a ball like this could be carried around in one's purse or pocket and during a lull in life when something calming would be useful (like a long wait somewhere or trying to quit smoking or sorting out thoughts) it could be pulled out and wound again. And again. Each ball would be different. I knit 'experiences' into items and feel that this is an added ingredient for the recipient, this focus of energy. With the ball winding adventure it seems that the 'experience' is an ongoing gift to self.