Knowledge Knot #1: What the hell is a skein?

Upon showing my coworker a few patterns today and commenting that they all used only one skein (of Malabrigo Rasta, to be precise),  she said:

“You use these words like I know what the hell they mean. Skein?”

This isn’t the first time someone has asked about a word I used that describes how a ball of yarn has been wound up, so upon mentioning that I should start a little section on my blog for this sort of thing, my coworker said I should call it “Knowledge Knot”. So, here it is!

Time to learn the difference between balls, skeins, hanks, and cakes. I’m sure you’re salivating with excitement.

Balls

Tee hee!  No, no, must be serious here. A ball is yarn tightly wound into a sphere shape. Usually, you can only use yarn from the outside of the ball. If you have the patience to wind your yarn into a ball, generally it won’t get tangled up again as you get closer to the center. However, you’ll probably want to find some sort of container to put the ball into while you work, because it will roll all over the place as it unwinds and possibly get dirty (or attract kitties).

There are ways to wind balls into “pull-balls” where you can pull from the center, but I’ve generally found that they end up too tight in the middle and it gets all tangled up. Here’s a tutorial for anyone interested.

Winding a skein into a centre-pull ball

Skeins

Skeins are what ravelers on a budget are familiar with. Major craft stores that sell yarn sell it in skeins. The yarn is loosely wound in an oblong shape.

Most of the time, one is able to dig into the center of a skein and pull the yarn out from middle for use. The advantage of this is if it works, your yarn won’t be flopping all of the place as you work. The disadvantage is sometimes your yarn doesn’t want to cooperate and you end up with a huge clump of tangled up yarn as if the skein just vomited it out all over the place (ravelers call this “yarn barf”).

If you want to avoid the potential frustration of yarn barf, you can also use the end of the yarn on the outside of a skein as you would with a ball. However, oblong shapes don’t unwind as nicely as a ball does, and it will be a bit awkward. You also have to take the same precautions as you would with a ball of yarn and put it inside of something to keep it from getting dirty or attacked by felines (though this won’t stop some determined kitties—I’m looking at you, Robin).

Hanks

Hanks are long loops of yarn that are generally held together by a few pieces of thread and then twisted up into an oblong shape. More expensive yarns are usually sold this way, as are yarns from indie sellers. It’s easy for them to package and ship this way.

Hanks need to be wound into a ball or a cake before you can use them.  You have to be careful if you are just laying the hank flat to wind it, because it can get tangled up pretty easily. You can have someone hold it for you as you wind, or you can loop it around the back of a chair. Some people even get by looping it around their feet and pulling it tight to prevent tangling.

Another option is to pick up a yarn swift. You can put your hank on the yarn swift and it will rotate for you as you wind your yarn up, which eliminates a lot of pain and strife from the process. Yarn swifts aren’t cheap, but luckily for the budget-conscious, it is possible to make your own. Some people have made them out of tinker toys, but those are expensive if you don’t have them already.  Personally, I prefer the Tilta Swift. You can get a lot of the pieces from the dollar store or hardware store, and it works famously. Put something in the middle for the best results.

Cakes

Cakes are what you get when you use a ball-winder.  You can get a really cheap one over at KnitPicks, and they have a tutorial to show you how to use it.  A yarn cake is a squat cylinder and is especially good for finer-weight yarns (such as lace or sock yarn) because then you can pack in a lot of yardage into a small space. It’s harder to wind bulky yarns into a cake and I generally only do so when I have a partial skein left. Cakes are my favorite way to store yarn because they’re stackable.

It’s a lot easier to pull from the center of a cake than it is in a skein because the yarn is already sticking out for you to use, and it doesn’t tangle as much. However, as you pull from the center the outside sort of collapses in on itself, so just watch out for little snags here and there.  You can also pull from the outside without the cake rolling all over the place.

Now you know what balls, hanks, skeins, and cakes are all about when in reference to yarn. Go forth and spread to the knowledge, my disciples!