I Dream of Sheep

Back in August, I received a Knitpicks ball winder as one of my birthday presents.  I’ve used it countless times since then to make myself some delightfully neat yarn cakes and for the most part, it has worked perfectly fine.  On larger yardage skeins, however, I occasionally run into a problem where the yarn catches on the bottom lip of the winder’s plate and makes a mess of things.

I have to stop what I’m doing and unwind the tangled yarn before I can continue.  It seems that it no matter how fast or slow I go, this problem is mostly unavoidable.  One fix I’ve found is stopping about mid-way during the winding process to gently move the cake up the central post so that the new yarn can slip under.  I don’t like this method because it is annoying to stop and start, plus I end up with not such a pretty cake.

After whining to my husband about the issue once or twice, he offered to figure out a more permanent solution.  I agreed to let him play with it on the one condition that if he broke it, he would have to replace it.  He discovered that if you raise the guide pole just a slight amount, the problem pretty much goes away completely. Great! Unfortunately, however, the metal is too tough to manipulate without risking breaking the plastic casing of the winder.  Somewhat disappointed, I took my ball winder back and continued along using the push method.

Tonight I pulled out my ball winder once again so that I could ready a skein of Dream in Color Smooshy for knitting with.  I was merrily doing my thing when the husband waltzed over and shoved the cap from his beer bottle under the guide post.

The yarn did not get caught under the plate for the remaining duration of winding.  Yay!  It is not the permanent solution I was hoping for and it’s certainly not a pretty one, but if it works that’s good enough for me.

If you have the same issues I have with your own plastic ball winder, try sliding a spoon or fork handle under your guiding post next time and see if it works for you.  Be careful not to use something that is too thick or you might stress the casing too much and break it.