No Tears! Caking (without a swift!) {Free Tutorial}

Many months ago, tucked away on an end cap in the corner of Michaels, I found a great deal on yarn. It was Loops and Threads brand, which I love working with. This yarn looked even shinier and softer than the stuff I usually buy. Yes, I have yarn spidey sense!

One 40% off coupon later I was a proud owner of two large hanks of yarn, which I promptly threw into my stash and ignored for fear of winding.

Recently these bags of yarn went on clearance! Even with the limited colors, how could I resist? You're right, I can't, so I didn't... resist that is. There is plenty of buzz- good and bad- about this yarn on the multiple crochet Facebook pages. Everyone is coming to the consensus that they are a huge HUGE disaster to wind into a ball. Being the person I am...

Challenge ACCEPTED! 

I haven't yet invested in a yarn swift, and I'm too much of a wimp to sit there and hold it out, strung along my arms (what is this?! "arm day" at the gym?!). So I had to come up with another idea. I'm not a naturally patient person. But when it is something I am passionate about (like yarn and good deals), I find patience.

The first hank winding went just fine until- it didn't:

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Cue: patience. *deep breath* *dives back in*

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I ended up winding the other end into a ball til I got to the knot/ tangle. Then I continued to cake from there. Like so:



Semi-success is maybe more invigorating than complete success. Semi-success means you simply must try again. So I did... try again that is.

Here is a picture tutorial of my best method yet for successfully winding a hank without a yarn swift!

Step 1: Carefully untwist the hank

Step 2: Loop the hank over an ironing board. You want to make sure the ironing board is tall or wide enough so the yarn has space to hang without bunching on the floor. 

Step 3: Cut loose yarn that holds the hank together. In this instance the thread that holds the hank together IS NOT part of the hank itself. Just a few snips and unthread the piece. 

You can see in the picture below the difference between the hank yarn and the thread that holds it all together. The piece that holds it all together isn't wound tightly together but more like a few threads. 

Now you should have two distinct and clean ends of your hank with nothing holding it together, just a long yarn loop (pictured 3 photos back).

Step 4: Take one end and thread it through your yarn winder (or you can ball it if you would like). Read more about my yarn winder here.

PLEASE!: Make sure your set up is going to work for you! This is key to things running smoothly. My ironing board and table with yarn winder are just a few feet from each other.

Step 5: Start winding! -which is easier said than done. I made it a two-person job and it still took incredible patience, but overall less time than speeding through and running into problems.

Watch my video first, it is less than 20 seconds. 

You will be pulling the hank towards you to unravel it while someone cranks the yarn winder. 

This takes practice. And is a good moment to test relationships because you and your buddy over at the yarn winder have to get a good pace going to be successful. Marriage counseling may or may not be required before or after this process.

Tip #1: Make sure that you pull the hank/ yarn loop straight and even (photo left side). It will have a tendency to move towards your yarn winder. DO NOT let it separate and pull off the end of the ironing board (photo right side): 

Tip #2: When you pull make sure you grab the whole entire hank/ yarn loop. My nice long salad fingers came in handy! You will notice that even the "Yes" photo looks like a mess. Repeat after me: "It will all go fine if I take my time."

Again, you are pulling the hank toward you, making sure that the psycho at the yarn winder doesn't get too carried away. I made sure that the piece joining to the winder stayed under hand/ arm so it wasn't going too fast and getting ahead. 

Before too long you will have a beautiful, easy to use cake of yarn. You'll feel like:

It is easy to do while watching TV, listening to music, talking. So invite a friend over and put them to work! 

I have only done two hanks using this method but I am open to new suggestions and methods if you have them. Please comment below and let me know. Happy winding! 

A Little Lucky Clover

Bored at recess in those hot late summer days, when it was too hot to play, I remember looking for 4-leaf clovers. I remember asking my mom and dad (separately of course, so I could compare answers) if 4-leaf clovers really existed. It was a matter of existence, not a question of finding one or if it would be lucky. Of the latter I was sure.



Now as a big kid, I make my own fortune, in yarn. This morning as I was scrolling through Instagram I saw Lion Brand feature this simple tutorial for a tiny {lucky, of course} 4-leaf clover.

They work up quick and I can already think of some uses for them:

Brooch (when you need green to avoid pinches!)
Headband
Bunting
Table decorations

Holidays like St. Patrick's Day always seem to sneak up on me, so I love little projects like this. What are your ideas? How can you see them being used?

Thanks again The Edible Complex for the fun pattern! Also A Creative Being for the heart pattern. I chose orange and white from Ireland's flag, of course. Knowledge of this compliments of elementary school and Flogging Molly merch.