Twist Question

12 Responses to “Twist Question”

On January 29th, 2008 at 5:25 am Barbara said:

Your yarn is twisting? I find I have a tiny bit of that because the yarn is so springy, but haven’t had enough problem to need to unwind it. Whichever way you put the skein on the swift won’t change anything except which direction the swift turns when you are winding the ball. Wonder if there is something in your knitting technique that is adding a bit of twist…hard to tell from here.

On January 29th, 2008 at 5:50 am Vicki Lewis said:

I have this same problem with everything I knit. I believe that it is because I knit from a center pull ball and as the yarn comes out it is spiraling from around the center. Don’t know if I explained that very clearly. Is this the only yarn you have this problem with?

On January 29th, 2008 at 6:10 am Tinker Tots said:

My yarn always twists up a bit as I go, and I’m not sure why. I’ve thought it has to do with my tension stretching the yarn and pulling some of its twist into the length of yarn waiting to be knit. What I end up doing is relaxing the hand keeping tension and move down the yarn a bit to grip it every once in a while… in essence moving that twist into my knitting.

Does that make sense?

On January 29th, 2008 at 8:39 am Marji said:

I have a twist in my yarn, but I too think it has to do with pulling it out of a center pull ball. I just let it unwind every once in a while and let my hands relax as it is unwinding.

On January 29th, 2008 at 8:44 am Ann Valdez said:

I was sure this twisting was due to the fact that I wound one ball (measured diameter), then rewound 2 equal balls off of that (for 2 socks at a time on 2 circs). I figured my winding off the ball sent the yarn in the wrong direction. There is a direction (grain) to yarn. I have never had this twisting problem. This is my first time using STR yarn. Interesting- have never experienced this.

On January 29th, 2008 at 8:52 am Tara said:

I have problems with it twisting also. I find that the twisting action gets more dramatic as the tension I hold the yarn at increases. (You could have spun it like a top after I knit while angry with my MIL.) My solution was to hold the yarn very lightly, over my forefinger and under my hand without looping around my pinky, on plain knit rounds. This seemed to ease the twist back out and then I cinch it back up on the pattern rows. It keeps the twist at a managable level for me, and keeps me from having to try and let it spin out.

On January 29th, 2008 at 11:40 am Chaya Mushka Davey said:

Hi Ann Valdez… you might want to try what i do… i too knit both socks at the same time… one sock from the inside thread and one sock from the outside thread… so i only wind once and keeps everything together… i use stitch markers “clickers” and mark them inside and outside so i know which clicker goes with which sock!!! works great for me

On January 29th, 2008 at 1:53 pm Susan said:

I’ve read that when you’re winding the yarn, you need to wind it so that the winder is going in the same direction as the swift, i.e., either both going clockwise, or both going counterclockwise. Having them go in opposite directions causes the extra twistiness, & I’ve also read that doing that can damage the twist of the yarn itself.

On January 29th, 2008 at 5:28 pm Ann Valdez said:

Susan- that is an absolutely great tip that I have never heard before. I will definitely watch that one. I LOVE learning new tips, THANKS!

On January 29th, 2008 at 6:04 pm Gayle in California said:

I think it’s gotta be something with the winding. I have the same problem, but not all the time. I can work with 2 skeins of the same yarn, and one will twist and the other won’t. It doesn’t seem to matter what brand. But I’m with you - it makes me nuts to have to stop and let everything unwind! Susan, I’m going to pay attention next time I wind, and make sure everything’s going the same way……

On February 4th, 2008 at 10:14 am Gayle in California said:

OK, so I tried the wind-everything-in-the-same-direction tip. Still twisting. I thought for sure that was the answer to this problem….What about the comment that yarn has a grain? Would it matter which end we wind from? Evidently sometimes I get it right and sometimes I get it wrong…..Do any of you who are more knowledgeable about the yarn itself have an answer to this dilemma?

On April 17th, 2008 at 2:06 pm Gayle in California said:

OK, here we are a few months later….I’ve discovered that if I wind in the opposite direction I don’t get any twist. I’ve done this twice, and hurrah!, no twist. So I set it up like a letter S…..it comes around and off the swift then into the ball winder going around the other direction. I hope this is helpful to others with the same question.

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