Winding a Centre-Pull Ball by Hand

Sometimes you just need to wind up a skein of yarn when you don’t have access to a ball winder or swift. On a visit to my mum’s house, I improvised by devising a nostepinde (nostepinne) out of a toilet paper tube.  I had seen it somewhere before and wanted to see if I could figure out how to do it.

Step 1

Cut a small slit in an empty toilet paper tube (or any other tube).  Slip the end of the skein through the slit.

Step 2

Start winding the yarn around the tube on a slight diagonal while slowly rotating the tube.  At first it doesn’t look much like anything is happening.

Step 3

Continue winding the yarn and you’ll see the start of a ball.

Step 4

Here’s the completed ball before it’s pulled off of the toilet paper tube.

Step 5

Finally, the ball of Blossom nestled among one of the lovely blossoms in Mum’s garden.