3 Ways to Wind a Center-Pull Ball on a Nøstepinne

Having a center-pull ball makes it easier to work with yarn while you’re knitting or crocheting. Pulling from the center as you work prevents the ball from rolling around and prevents unwanted tangles. There are many ways to wind a center-pull ball of yarn. Here, Spin Off editor Kate Larson leads you through easy steps to winding a tidy center-pull ball around your thumb in a short video. Then, Spin Off author and instructor Heavenly Bresser shares three different methods she uses for winding a center-pull ball using a nøstepinne—a traditional tool that’s used to manually wind a center-pull ball of yarn. And, finally, current subscribers to Spin Off can access Heavenly’s full article, where she explores how the use of this tool impacts the twist of the yarn. Let’s get started!

Kate’s Rule of Thumb

Kate Larson prefers to wind yarn by hand. Watch Kate demonstrate the technique she uses to wind yarn into a center-pull ball in the following video and then try it for yourself.

1) Lay your skein of yarn across your knees, over the back of a chair, or on a yarn swift.
2) Place the tail in the palm of your hand and point your thumb straight up.
3) Holding the yarn from the skein in your other hand, wind from the bottom right side of your thumb to the upper left side. Make sure the first few wraps are loose.
4) As a small yarn ball forms, use the fingers on the same hand to rotate slowly clockwise as you wrap the yarn.

Tip: Keep the ball resting toward the top of your thumb instead of pushed firmly down onto your thumb.

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Heavenly’s Nøstepinne: Three Ways

Heavenly researched the history behind this traditional tool and found that the nøstepinne has many names in Scandinavia, such as a vindepind, wickeldorn, and nystepinne. Here, she shares three different ways to manually wind a center-pull ball of yarn.

Method One: Keep it Rolling

Get a closer look! Click on any image in the gallery below to open it in full-screen mode.

Method One: Keep it Rolling. Photos by Heavenly Bresser

With this method, the hand holding the nøstepinne does the majority of the work. This is the method I used for the three-ply and singles yarns.

1) To get started, hold the nøstepinne in one hand, create a slipknot, and attach it to the top of the nøstepinne.

2) Allow a length of the working yarn to move