Winding Yarn Then and Now

Hello everyone,

I just wound some yarn for my new project. It’s fine, hand-dyed lace yarn—100 grams = 800 meters. It went really fast with my yarn winder.

As I was cranking it, I thought about how people used to do it back in the day. When I was a little kid, my grandma would occasionally hang a skein of yarn over my forearms, which I held out in front of me. I had to hold it there until she’d wound it all up. That sometimes took quite a while, because I’d much rather have gone off to play. And my grandma knitted a looooot, including for her five grandchildren, so that included me, too :-)

In my own home, we were a bit more modern—we’d drape the yarn over the back of a chair and wind the ball ourselves without any help. Sometimes it still got tangled, though, and then you had to somehow thread the ball through the rest of the skein.

Today I have my own yarn winder. I just wanted to make this necessary but unloved task easier for myself. I stretch the yarn over a sort of umbrella swift and then wind it onto a sort of spindle. It works really well. It’s a one-time purchase that I don’t regret at all, especially with the fine 800-meter yarns.





How do you handle winding yarn? Do you enjoy doing it? Or do you avoid it and only buy pre-wound yarn? And how did you do it back in the day—do you have any memories of that?

I’d love it if you’d chat with me a bit about it.

Warm regards, Ina

Ina, it’s similar for me. I used to drape the yarn over the back of a chair and wind it by hand. Then I got my first yarn winder—it looked just like yours. But since I often use thick yarn, it would often slip. Then I bought the large wooden winder from Knit Pro and a swift—not an umbrella swift, but an old one that I also attach to the countertop. As it happens, I still need to wind a skein of sheep’s wool later, so I’ll take a picture then.

Oh, Ina, I just had to smile at the topic of winding yarn. That’s exactly how it used to be for us, too—those two old methods. I didn’t like doing that.
Today I buy my yarn in ready-made balls or yarn cakes. If I do have to wind it, I use the usual, tried-and-true manual technique. A yarn winder isn’t worth it for me, since I mostly crochet with thin yarn, and those come in ready-made balls.
Ah, those wonderful childhood days. It’s nice to look back on them.

Here’s a picture of my swift and my winder; the bottom picture shows the finished ball of yarn

You guys have some interesting things—this is the first time I’ve seen something like this.

Of course I remember when my mom used to wind her yarn and I’d hold it in my arms. I wasn’t thrilled about it, but it didn’t bother me either.

Now you might laugh, but I still do it the old-fashioned way today. However, I’m in the same boat as Bastelfan. It’s not worth it for me to buy a winder like that because I knit with balls of yarn. I’d rather fill the space I’d need for such a device with yarn. ;-)

My husband always has to hold the yarn for me, and as you already know, he’s veeeery patient. :)
Or I do it together with my neighbor who knits.

I still have a few skeins lying around that need to be wound. I’ll get to them eventually. Right now, though, I have enough balls of yarn and the like lying around that I don’t need it.

Yeees, I used to have to hold my arms out too; I often think about that.
By now I also have a swift and a yarn winder. If only to determine the yardage of my hand-spun yarn.

By the way, the term “old geezer” (“alter Knacker”) is said to come from yarn production. On the old swifts there was a little peg that clicked once each round. That way, when winding the yarn from the spinning bobbin onto the swift, you could count the rotations and determine the yardage. And of course you could also get yourself “in a muddle” while doing it.
Maybe it was just the joints cracking when turning the swift crank... haha.

Best, Caro

Caro, that’s so interesting!

I have an umbrella-style winder and a jumbo winder, and I’m really happy with them, since the prettiest yarns these days always come in skeins.
But looking at your wooden winder, Nadeleule… I think it’s going on my wish list :-)

Hi Caro,
thank you so much for the entertaining post. The references to the “old clunker” and the “tangling” now take on a deeper meaning. We’re having a good laugh about it today. But tell me, how do you determine the yardage while winding the yarn? Is there a counter that says, “It’s now 300 meters”?

And yes, it’s true—the most beautiful (hand-dyed) yarns come in skeins. That’s how they hang in the store, tempting us. We see all the beautiful colors in them and then picture in our minds’ eye what they’ll look like when knitted. If they were already wound up, it would look just a little different. I think that seeing a skein of yarn in its natural form sparks the imagination more. In any case, I love yarn like this, and the shelf with the colorful skeins always draws me in like magic.

Warm regards—Ina

Hi,
the cheapest option is a line counter from a fishing store.

My counter is programmable and linked to the winder, and it stops automatically when the desired length is reached.

To measure the length of my hand-spun yarn:
On the first turn, I measure how long the yarn is. That way, I know how many centimeters one turn is. Then I count until everything is wound onto the reel. I then multiply the number of turns by the centimeters of the first turn. That gives me the total length. Now weigh the skein taken from the reel and convert the results to 50 or 100 grams.
It sounds more tedious than it is *smile
Greetings, Caro

Thread...not store...oh dear, I wish I could edit this post...

Hello marco-gerland and Fadenstrang,
thank you very much for your informative explanations. The first option is a bit more professional and probably doable too, since my husband is an angler. However, so far he doesn’t have a device like that among his gear. But maybe that would be something for me.

I like the second option too. You just have to count the rotations and not get distracted. It probably takes a bit more concentration and practice. But it’s doable too.

In any case, thank you for your additions to this topic.

Best regards, Ina