Nostepinne Tutorial

How to Wind a Center Feed Ball of Yarn

Nostepinne, hand turned by Cynthia D. Haney, and the center feed ball of yarn it wound.  How to use a Nostepinne winding a center pull yarn cake.

Step by Step Photo Guide to Nostepinne Use

Nostepinne hand turned by Cynthia D. Haney from Cherry wood.  Shown with a skein of blue green handspun with a drop spindle yarn also made by Cynthia.

Starting with a skein, also known as a hank, of yarn find one end. Warning skeins behave better on a swift, a friend’s hands, or even draped around your neck. Anything that allows you to unwrap the strand without having the loop become a tangle.

First step in using a Nostepinne.  One end of the yarn skein is knotted around the grove in the nostepinne.  This is what allows for a center feed ball to be wound.

Step 1: Tie the end around the notch on the Nostepinne. This prevents loosing the end.

How to use a Nostepinne second step.  Wind perpendicular to the shaft of the nostepinne from the skein of yarn

Step 2: Start winding the yarn around the nostepinne. How far you wrap here determines the height of the yarn cake you are forming.

How to use a Nostepinne step 3.  Cherry wood nostepinne hand made by Cynthia D. Haney, artisan woodturner.

Step 3: The first layer of wrapping is done. The rest of the ball is wrapped at an angle. Just started in this picture. Avoid pulling tightly on the yarn it makes for tangles later and sore hands.

Nostepinne photo tutorial part 4.  Wrapping the center feed ball of yarn.

Step 4: You guide the yarn up and down while turning the nostepinne.

How do I use a nostepinne pictorial tutorial step five.  The process of a DIY yarn ball cake.

Step 5: A few turns later you can still see the center through the wraps. Each time you get to the top or bottom of the wound portion, just guide it back to the other end.

How to wind a skein of yarn guide step 7. Using a hand turned nostepinne from Cherry by Cynthia D. Haney, a woman artisan wood turner.

Step 6: Just keep wrapping as you turn the nostepinne. If you want the tidy cylindrical yarn cake shape try to avoid covering more of the nostepinne. It is fine to have more of an egg shape just avoid covering where you tied the knot.

Winding a skein of yarn to use both ends as a yarn ball or yarn cake.  What does a nostepinne do. Photo tutorial step 8

Step 7: Doing the same motions it keeps getting bigger. I do work to get the cylindrical, cake, shape. So I have not covered the far ends of my earlier wraps.

How to use a nostepinne to make a yarn ball, yarn cake, avoid yarn barf.  Pictorial guide using a nostepinne hand made by Cynthia D. Haney

Step 8: Still wrapping, I turn the nostepinne with my right hand and will gradually guide the yarn to the far end again.

DIY yarn ball winding on a nostepinne.  How do I work with a hank of yarn. Step 11.

Step 9: The next turn in progress.

How to use a nostepinne getting from skein to yarn ball, center pull.    On a cherry wood nostepinne hand turned by owner artisan Cynthia D. Haney in her Virginia wood shop.

Step 10: I found the other end of the skein. Wrapping all done. You can see the ‘cake’ shape now.

How to hand wind a center pull ball of yarn on a nostepinne.  as seen from below

Step 11: A good look at both ends. At this point I tuck the outer end under one of the wraps so it doesn’t unwind.

A freshly wound yarn cake coming off the nostepinne.  Last step in the how to guide.

Step 12: Untie from the nostepinne and slide the yarn ball off.

ow to use a nostepinne the tool and the result a tangle free center feed yarn ball.  Featuring a cherry wood hand turned ball winding stick hand made by Cynthia D. Haney.

Last step: Admire your work before you use the yarn. If you avoided pulling too tight in the winding the center will still be open.


So to review: tie the end around the nostepinne’s notch, wrap perpendicular to the shaft to start, then continue wrapping at an angle until you reach the far end, untie and slide off. Important tip don’t pull tight, or you can get big clumps of yarn ‘barf’ when working from the center. Style tip if you always wrap over your existing work you can get the ‘cake of yarn’ shape.

The nostepinne shown is hand turned from cherry. I make them out of a variety of woods and shape the handles for comfort. The yarn pictured is some of my handspun. A two ply, 194 yards, from 4 oz. of superfine alpaca hand dyed by Flying Goat Farm. I spun and plied all of it using top whorl drop spindles from my personal collection.