Thursday, June 05, 2014

How to make your own Everlasting Gobstopper Yarn Ball!



Hi, Knitters,
The other day I posted this photo to Instagram and Facebook sharing the hand wound 50 gram balls I made from the skein of Quaere Fibre self-striping sock yarn in the Patchwork colorway. I have done this winding technique with lots of other striping sock yarn skeins. I think they always look like candy in the end, kind of like the Willy Wonka Everlasting Gobstoppers. The Patchwork versions are especially eye-catching due to the beauty and colors of the yarn.


I had quite a few people ask if I would share how I wound the balls this way. Of course I will!

Here is my wordless video on winding. I will write out the simple steps below the video.




How to create an Everlasting Gobstopper yarn ball:

Note: The yarn in the video is Vesper Sock Yarn in the Rainbow Love colorway.

1.  I usually just drape the yarn over the back of a chair for winding but you could wind it on a ball winder first or place it on your swift to start. For video purposes today I pre-wound the ball on the ball winder so I could keep my range of motion small. I don't usually take this extra step.

2.  Wrap the end and yarn around several fingers until you have a good amount. Remove the yarn and make a sort of figure eight with it and fold it in half to make the start of your ball.

3. Begin wrapping the yarn around this tiny ball in all directions until it is about the size of a walnut or quarter.

4. Now start paying attention to the spot where the color changes in the yarn. Each time the yarn changes stop winding at that spot.

5. *Place your thumb on the color change spot and turn the ball to start winding in a different direction. Wind each stripe of color in the same direction/spot until you reach the next color. Then repeat from *

Keep working in this way until all of the yarn is wound! If you want two 50g balls for socks you'll have to weigh as you go. Also, make sure you wind the yarn in different directions, side to side, up and down, and diagonally. This will help the ball end up more even.


Here is the finished result!! I wound the 100g skein in one ball this time.

The yarn is Vesper from KnitterlyThings, one of my longtime favorites.

Click here for the Knitterly Things shop!

Enjoy!

I'd love to see your Everlasting Gobstoppers if you make some.

best, susie
p.s. #everlastinggobstopper    maybe? let me know. i'm in if you are.

12 comments:

joan g said...

Susan I missed something. Why do I need to do this? They are striking. But why?

Sam I Am...... said...

How delightful! Thank you for that as now we can use our balls of yarn as decorative features in our homes until, of course, we knit them into something. But then we can order more! Plus, if we change our decorating we can just order more yarn to go with the new look! LOL!
One more reason to buy more yarn....love it!
P.S. I got your podcast as it stated the ball winding video had been removed....just an FYI. I got the gist of it from your instructions.

sarah said...

joan g - just because! it's fun!!!! :-)

Susan B. Anderson said...

Okay, the video is back on! Sorry about that mix up. I had put some music with the video and then it wasn't what I had selected and I couldn't remove it so I had to re-load the quiet, wordless video again.

Anyway, all is well and the video is up and as it should be:)

Sorry for any trouble.

LannieK said...

Thanks - for showing your technique and for a new yarn source! Love the colors :-)
I bet these socks are going to be beautiful!

GerryART said...

❤️❤️Love this Eye-Candy way to enjoy our yarn
It's not just to knit ;-)
I love just looking at it.
Thank you, Susan, for sharing your technique for winding this jewel of a ball of yarn.

Must do!

Hugs

Susan B. Anderson said...

joan g. I misunderstood your comment before. It's just for fun and an interesting and appealing way to wind stripey sock yarn. I first did this on vacation when I didn't have a swift and ball wonder available. There is no reason other than that. I just loved the way it looked.

Unknown said...

I don't understand something. How do you go from one color to the other? Is this yarn you bought or did you make it? If you made it do you combine the blue yarn to the green for example? Sounds cool for leftovers.

Susan B. Anderson said...

jennifer, it's self-striping sock yarn so it is made that way. you could combine leftovers in this same way too, like the Magic Cake by Paula Emons-Fuessle.

TerriSue said...

I always ball my yarn. Even if it is in a pull through wind. If I don't it will most assuredly tangle up inside. I love this new wind. I think I will wind all my yarn this way now. Even solids would look pretty!

joan g said...

Oh Susan, I got out of bed on the wrong side yesterday. So sorry. Color and yarn are where it is at.

RaNae @EweCreekCottage said...

Way cool the next time I get some self stripping i will be sure to tag it. Thanks for the video.
RaNae aka
EweCreekCottage
aka
RaNaeLuvsEwes