Knit Nerd - Is it a Skein, a Hank or a Ball?

DEAR KNIT NERD

Hi,

I am confused about the terms used for yarn. Are skein and hank the same thing? When is yarn a ball? And what about cakes and donuts?

Thanks!

DEAR CONFUSED

That is a great question! It is understandable why these terms get confusing since many people use them interchangeably.

Hank

Most hand dyed indie yarns are sold in 100g hanks. A hank is made by winding the yarn into a large loop and then twisting that loop while holding it at both ends until is twists in on itself. One end is then tucked into the other to secure the twist. A hank is usually the simplest and most cost-effective way for yarn companies to sell yarn since this is the state the yarn is usually in when it is hand dyed. Many yarn dyers often receive the undyed yarn already in this format and so no additional effort is required (other that twisting the loop) to get it ready for selling to customers. Some indie dyers will choose to rewind their hanks after dying to redistribute the colour for aesthetic purposes, but it isn’t necessary. Creating a hank doesn’t require any specialized machinery and can be done with a few simple tools or just your hands. This format isn’t the most convenient format for makers, however. You cannot knit or crochet directly from a hank, it needs to be rewound into a ball or a cake. I think the point where confusion starts to happen for most of us is that many knitters and crocheters call this a skein. Even yarn retailers will sometimes refer to this format as a skein.

Skein

Most commercially dyed yarn is sold as a skein. Skeins are intricately wound to allow knitters and crocheters to work directly from the skein by pulling the yarn either from the center or the outside. No additional work is required by the end user to start knitting or crocheting. This format takes expensive specialized machinery to wind, which makes it a format that is not ideal for small yarn companies. The yarn is not dyed in this state, it is wound this way at the end of a large-scale dying process. I will often hear makers and retailers refer to this as a ball of yarn, again adding to the confusion.

Donut

A donut, as it is sometimes referred to, is another center pull format that is sometimes used with commercially dyed yarns. This format is often used for smaller amounts of yarn, like 50g or 25g. Some makers find these difficult to handle when pulling from the center because they quickly become unstable or collapse and choose to pull from the outside instead.

Ball

A ball of yarn is just what it sounds like, a ball. There are a couple different ways to prepare yarn that is in a hank for working with and the simplest is to wind it into a ball. You will need to either have someone hold the hank by putting their hands through the center, put it on a swift or make do with wrapping it around the backs of some chairs so that it can be wound into a ball and not end up a tangled mess. The ball is made by wrapping the yarn around itself and changing directions occasionally to keep the ball round. The downside to working from a ball of yarn is that you can’t pull from the center, which means you will have to pull from the outside and this can send your ball rolling off away from you. Using a bowl to hold the ball can help keep it in control. Yarn is very rarely sold in a ball. Schoppel Zauberball is one of the few companies that winds they’re yarn this way.

Cake

A yarn cake is one of the most common ways to wind hanks of yarn before working with it. Cakes are popular because they can be made relatively quickly with a few tools, and you can either pull from the center or the outside. When pulling from the outside, the cake tends not to run away from you as much as a ball does because of the flat sides. Yarn cakes can be made using either a nostepinne or a ball winder and usually a swift although you can again make do by having someone hold the hank for you (although I strongly suggest you use a swift if you are using a ball winder). Using a nostepinne can be a bit slow and tedious but is cheaper than a ball winder and can even be just a piece of dowel. Using a ball winder and a swift is the fasted way to make a cake of yarn. Some commercial yarn is sold in a cake, like Holst Garn Supersoft, and some hand dyers sell their yarn as cakes, especially when they want to show off a gradient.

Cone

There is one more format that yarn is commonly sold in that you didn’t mention and that is a cone. “Cone” is used to describe yarn that is wound around a cardboard or plastic core that is usually cone shaped but can also just be a straight cylindrical tube. Yarn is most often sold this way when it is used for weaving since you can fit quite a lot of yarn on a cone and it easily winds off the end so can be used for warping without risk of snags, tangles or tension problems. Some yarns you will see at the Little Red Mitten sold in cones is Holst Garn Supersoft and 2/8 Cotton.

I hope this helps clear things up a bit! Just remember that even yarn retailers sometimes confuse the terms skein and hank so even if an online yarn listing says skein, it might arrive in a hank and need to be wound.

Sincerely,

Your Friendly Neighbourhood Knit Nerd