January 31st, 2012

Tuesday’s Knitting & Crochet Tip – How to Divide a Ball of Yarn in Half

Using a kitchen food scale is the easiest way to split a ball of yarn exactly in half.

  1. Weigh the full ball and write that number down so you don’t forget!
  2. Wind off your yarn until the scale reads half the original weight.
  3. Cut the yarn and you’ll have two equal balls to work from.

Royal Ball Winder available at yarn.com

This is perfect for using a double-strand for a bulky project or for making sure you have enough yarn for two equally-sized socks.

What if you don’t have a kitchen scale? How have you been able to divide a ball of yarn in half?

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 at 10:44 am and is filed under Tips & Techniques. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • Dgrendahl2

    I have a yarn yard meter that I use.

  • Kathy

    I don’t cut the yarn but instead use from each end that way if the yardage isn’t equal I can just keep knitting without having another end to join and weave in.  Obviously this won’t work if you have a patterned yarn and want the patterns to match.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_EPI2NPJ4VXXS7JJ6S2V2EE34PM Ale

    Can I find the yarn winder on webs? I want it!!!

  • Judy

    I needed to divide a skein of yarn in half and was traveling, so I took the yarn to a grocery store and weighed the two halves on a produce scale.  Not as accurate as a kitchen scale, but it worked.  And no one who was looking at me strangely knew me.

  • Anonymous

    Great tip for something basic that a lot of us need to do!

  • Susan

    As I’m winding the yarn off of the swift onto the ball winder I run it through my yardage meter until I reach the half-way point.

  • Susan

    As I’m winding a skein of yarn off of the swift onto the ball winder I run it through my yardage meter until I reach the half-way point. 

  • Jill

    One method for evenly dividing a skein or ball of yarn requires multiple steps.
    1. Pull from inside and outside ends together winding into a single ball until you get to the center.
    2. Cut the loop between the two ends.
    3. Wind two separate balls form each end. (Takes going back a forth between the two balls. Annoying.

    Another method which works similar to the one with the kitchen scale.
    1. Make a balance of a ruler on a vertical edge of a shoebox or other similar edge. Make sure that the ruler actually balances at its center. If not, make a not of where it does balance.
    2. Start winding off the ball. When about half done, put the original and new balls on the two ends of the ruler and see if it is balanced yet.
    3. Wind more onto ball which is lighter. Retest.

  • Spin2whirl

    I just make two balls and try to match the size of the balls