So if you want to knit socks holding two strands of sock yarn together at the same time, and you have two separate balls of yarn such as these:

sock yarn

Is it better to wind them into one ball holding the two strands together? Or is it better to just knit from the two separate balls? Which way would be easier to knit from without causing one big tangle?

It’s these types of questions that keep me up at night. ;)

Hope you get more sleep than I do and have a great weekend! I actually have HWJF to myself ALL weekend! Woo hoo!!! :)

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18 Responses to “A Friday question”
  1. Mintyfresh says:

    wow, i’ve never thought to wind it up joined, but that’s not a bad idea. Since you’re using both strands equally, though, I don’t think the balls would get horribly tangled, but they might get all twisted funny. And actually, that might still happen if you balled them up together, but if you keep the balls separate, you can untwist them. So I guess I’d vote for keeping the balls separate. Let us know how it turns out! Enjoy your weekend.

  2. Barbp says:

    As I have such a vast knowledge of knitting, Not, I’ll be watching to see what you decide as I have wondered this myself.

    You have HWJF to yourself and MFB is as usual with the team this weekend. Home game tonight than on the road Saturday and Sunday. Enjoy your “couple” time.

  3. Leigh says:

    I leave mine separate. However, I know someone the always winds her balls together and doesn’t seem to have any trouble wit the knitting. It doe make a more compact project to carry around.

    But I’ve also seen her change her mind about the project and try to re-separate the two balls. Wine was involved before hand, and the result was not pretty.

  4. jody says:

    i keep them separate, but i affix the balls to each other. usually i’ll drop both balls into a single ziploc bag, and snip a little corner off each of the zip ends. thread a tail from each ball through each of the holes, and you’re done.

    i do this so the balls can’t twist on each other. for each half round knit you need to flip the ziploc bag once. it’s not much work and the yarn never tangles. plus the yarn stays clean in the ziploc!

  5. Gigi says:

    I keep the balls separate, but they usually wrap around each other as you knit.

  6. Dee says:

    I’ll be the dissenter. :smile: I like to wind my yarn together before I start knitting. I find it tangles less.

    YMMV

  7. Lauren says:

    I think they’re equally likely to behave or tangle.

  8. Anne says:

    I have gone both routes, and my vote is to wind the two together into a single ball…as long as you are positive you will not be changing your mind about this yarn for this project. I agree that deciding to repurpose the yarn and having to separate back into 2 balls is a pain in the….use your imagination.

    If you do choose to leave them separate, I second the idea of putting each in their own baggy to prevent a twisted, tangled mess.

    Have a great weekend!

  9. Sarah says:

    I have no opinion on the balls. i’d probably leave them separate, but just because it sounds like one less step. I (gasp) don’t rewind anything that’s already in anything resembling a ball.

    A photo request. If you have, or when you have a sock going on a magic loop post a picture for those of us who have never seen anyone doing it. I’ve done a few rows, but I’m just not sure if I’ve got everything going in the right direction.

  10. jennsquared says:

    I would wind them together just because I always get them tangled!!!

  11. Shawn says:

    The lady at my LYS taught me a trick, she said to put them in a ziploc bag before you start knitting. Cut a hole in each side of the bag and pull the stands throught the holes. It stops the yarn from twisting and tangling. I hope this helps.

  12. stacey says:

    I usually keep them seperate and just knit them from the 2 seperate balls held together. I did try to wind 2 together once and ended up with a huge tangled mess!

  13. Sheila says:

    I like to keep them separate and use the same technique with the ziploc bag, it makes it easier, especially since I do a lot of crocheting in the car and train. Totally love your blog Title and Picture.

  14. catsmum says:

    I’ve tried the winding together and It never works. I’d vote for starting with a centre pull and feeding the live end through a hole in the center of the top of a pair of suitably sized yogurt pot or margarine containers

  15. CygKnit says:

    Hmmm, I vote for seperate balls. Winding together sounds like asking for tangles. I’ve used two with no problems, but YMMV and all. Let us know how it works out :)

  16. Trish says:

    I’ve done the separate ball thing and even with ziploc baggies it wasn’t much fun. So if it were possible to wind them together before without making a giant mess, I would think that would be easier. Of course every time I try to wind a ball with just one strand, I make a giant mess.

  17. Andrea says:

    I think the answer is to knit one sock each way, and then report back to us. ;)

  18. Joanne says:

    I leave them separate and haven’t had any tangling issues… but I like that ziploc idea… .hmm…

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