Finding the center of a skein of yarn can be difficult. But following my method, you will always stitch from the center of your skein without any tension problems.
Step 1: Find the outside end of the yarn that the yarn company stuffed into one side of the skein. Pull that out and tuck it under the label or outer strands of the skein.
Step 2: Go back in one end of the yarn to the middle and grab some of the strands from the middle. Pull them out. See if you begin to get a bigger section of yarn. Basically, you want yarn barf to happen here. You want an inner blob of yarn to come out.
Step 3: After your inner blob comes out, make sure that only one strand of yarn is coming out of the skein. Follow the strand from the center of the skein to the outside of your blob. Start pulling the yarn off of the blob from the outside and lay it down. Reach to the outer strand of the blob and pull again. Keep pulling until you reach the end of the yarn which will be the center pull end.
Step 4: Start stitching from this end of the yarn. The working yarn should come loosely off of the top of your discard pile from unraveling that inner blob. When you’ve used all of the discard pile, the yarn should flow freely from the center of your skein.
Happy Stitching.
What an invention someone could make if they could find an easy way to do this!! If the companies would put an item on the starting end , they could make a “mint.” My husband is always laughing at my when I am trying to find the starting end of a skein.
You are right!!
The yarn companies used to “tuck the end” and also leave a little “start end” (center pull) , I think the people that like the “tuck the end” won the battle…not sure why, because it’s easier for a center pull…”start end”… “let’s rise up against the yarn companies… CENTER PULL MATTERS” LOL (just a little humor for my fellow yarn lovers!)
Nice tips… I have greater success and less stuffing around by using one hand from the top and one from bottom and trying to have them meet in the middle and pull a strand from there. It’s worth trying. When we pull a “yarn blob” from the middle of a cake, we call it a cupcake 😉
Cupcake!! I love that!
I disagree with how she finds the middle after getting the blob. I find the end strand and just start crocheting. The tension is not tight and just loosen yarn if it starts to tangle until you’ve crocheted the whole blob. Pulling that blob apart, in my opinion, is just annoying.
Pat, thank you so much for your comment. That’s what’s so great about crochet, you can do it any way you wish! I was showing what works best for me. What’s annoying for me is blindly searching for that beginning strand in the middle, that’s why I just get a blob. Granted, I usually try to get as small a blob as possible. I also hate yanking on the yarn as it comes out of a tight center. I’m glad that’s not a problem for you! Happy stitching!