The Pros and Cons of Knitting Directly from a Skein of Yarn (without winding it into a ball first)

One of the downsides of living out of a suitcase for a couple months, is that my swift and ball winder are both currently packed away in my storage unit.

The yarn for my sweater project is on cones, so no need to wind any cakes for that project.

But it does mean that if I want to start anything new (like swatching of the upcoming Shawl Geometry Books update) and that yarn comes in hanks or skeins, I have three options:

1. I could coordinate with a friend to come over and borrow there swift & winder. The downside of this being this would probably take more effort than spending an afternoon digging through my storage unit (though it would also probably be a lot more enjoyable too).

2. I could wind my yarn by hand. The downside being it is not quick process and my calendar is already quite full.

3. I could knit directly from the skein of yarn. The downside being this sometimes feels like flirting with impossible tangles.

I ended up choosing door number 3.

I don’t knit directly from the skein often, and there are a bunch of pros and cons to this practice, but it’s a damn useful trick to have up your sleeve.
(Especially if you have the tendency to want to start a project NOW!)

The PROS of knitting directly from a skein of yarn:

: The biggest upside is, you can start knitting immediately. No winding yarn. No setting up equipment. No pulling equipment out of storage. No digging through a storage unit.

: You don’t add any extra twist or tension to your yarn. When you wind a ball of yarn, whether by hand or with a ball winder, you add a touch of extra twist and (sometimes a lot) of extra tension to your yarn. This extra twist and tension is generally not a problem, but if it’s a lot of extra, it can lead to some problems.

: If you only use a partial skein (like you do when you’re swatching), you can put the skein back in your stash as a relaxed skein, instead of as a tensioned ball. When you leave tensioned cakes of yarn of long periods of time, the yarn looses some of it’s springiness, getting tired, limp, sort of sad.

: An excellent technique to use when swatching. If you just want to taste a yarn, or to try out a stitch pattern or new technique, knitting directly from the skein lets you dive right in.

The CONS of knitting directly from a skein of yarn:

: Requires a little bit of attention. Sometimes woolly yarn likes to cling to itself, and silky yarn likes to slip around. So to avert tangles it helps to keep half an eye on what your skein is doing to make sure it’s not slipping and falling out of the skein or clinging to itself and pulling out of the skein.

: Takes up a smidge more space than knitting from a ball of yarn. This isn’t really a method I would use on the NYC subway at rush hour, or on a crosstown bus. But generally if you have enough space to sit down and cross your legs, you have enough space to lay out a skein of yarn.

: Sometimes I find twisting up a skein with a project still attached highly annoying. This mostly depends on my mood, and how violently I want to twist the skein, and has more to do with the fact that I usually add twist to a skein using both hands. Twisting up a skein with a project still attached is far easier if you add twist with one hand while keeping the other still (the one closer to the project).

Despite the cons, and how much it looks like flirting with disaster, knitting directly from a skein of yarn is not difficult.

You open up your skein of yarn (an open skein of yarn is called a hank).
Place the hank open around your knees, or in your lap, or over your shoulder, or over a chair, or on the table in front of you.
Undo the ties tying it together.
Find one end.
Start knitting.

When you want to stop knitting:
Put your project down.
Take your hank at either end, and twist it back up into a skein.

Just like with anything in knitting, it gets easier with practice.

If you want to try knitting directly from a skein of yarn, here are a couple tips to get you started…

: start with a smoother, heavier yarn. That lace weight mohair is not going to make a good practice yarn.

: start with a shorter skein. A 200 or 400 yard skeins are far easier to control than 1000+ yard skeins.

: start by tensioning the skein around your knees, or the back of a chair. While it isn’t necessary to keep the skein tensioned while you knit directly from it, it can feel a little more manageable if you do. (The main reason to keep a skein tensioned while you wind yarn from it is so you can wind faster without the yarn clinging to itself.)

: start with a swatch or a project you can knit in one sitting. That way you won’t have to worry about winding up a skein of yarn with a project still attached.

Frankly, if you can wind a ball of yarn by hand without a swift or a ball winder, you can knit directly from a skein. The only difference between the two is winding the skein up between knitting sessions.

I’m about 2 skeins and 800+ yards into operation knit all the lime green swatches, and have yet to have a problem.

(Fingers crossed, that this continues.)