How to Wind a Center Feed Ball of Yarn
Step by Step Photo Guide to Nostepinne Use
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.
Step 1: Tie the end around the notch on the Nostepinne. This prevents loosing the end.
Step 2: Start winding the yarn around the nostepinne. How far you wrap here determines the height of the yarn cake you are forming.
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.
Step 4: You guide the yarn up and down while turning the nostepinne.
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.
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.
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.
Step 8: Still wrapping, I turn the nostepinne with my right hand and will gradually guide the yarn to the far end again.
Step 9: The next turn in progress.
Step 10: I found the other end of the skein. Wrapping all done. You can see the ‘cake’ shape now.
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.
Step 12: Untie from the nostepinne and slide the yarn ball off.
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.