When you buy enough yarn to finish a project, there’s often some left over.

The alternative, however, is to not have enough yarn.  Which can be even more frustrating … especially if you’re trying to match dye lots.  Or, if you’re blessed with hand-dyed, maybe there is no more of that dye lot.

After a project, sometimes there’s just not enough of a ball left to hold its shape.  Leaving it unwound invites all kinds of tangled messes before you can use it.

For years, I rewound yarn the way I was taught as a child.  You may have been taught the same way: wind around three or four fingers, and then slip it off and wind a ball.  You’ve probably noticed the problem with this method: when using the yarn from the center, the center tends to pop out in a clump, sometimes with more yarn than you want … and sometimes with a tendency to tangle.

Of course, a ball winder will alleviate this problem: sometimes though it’s not convenient or in the budget.  My sister, who spins, has a short dowel she uses to wind her yarn.  She makes lovely yarn balls with it.

However, I keep forgetting to look for a dowel in my infrequent trips to the hardware store.  So, I decided to improvise.

With a pencil!

Here’s the technique:

First, you wind a strand down and around the bottom.  Since this is a small ball of yarn, I didn’t use the whole length of the pencil.

Wind horizontally next …

Then just wind your ball …

The yarn will slip off the pencil (or dowel), with the center loose enough to easily use.

The pencil was fine for small balls of yarn, but I needed something larger for bigger balls …

Next I tried a highlighter. Checking first to be sure it wasn’t leaking!

Not quite ideal because the diameter was larger than optimal, and it’s a bit difficult to pull off the highlighter.

A tapered end would work better, and the ball would slip off more easily. And, inspiration struck!

One of my size 15 tips from my Denise Knitting Needles from Alpaca Direct! It’s the right diameter — more or less — and its tapered ends make sliding the ball off smooth and easy. Instead of wrapping the yarn around the end of the needle tip, I just made a U shape to start, then wound the ball.

And voila …

Click here to tweet this!