Generally yarn is
skeined directly after
spinning or
plying. This is because after spinning or plying the yarn generally gets washed, and a skein is the best form to have the yarn in for washing. Although balls are easier for
knitters and
crocheters to use because they don't get tangled as easily, yarn is sometimes taken from a ball and reskeined in order to measure the yardage of leftover yarn, store it without tension, or to wash out kinks if the yarn was unraveled. When skeining from
wheel spun yarn, the
bobbin can either be removed from the wheel and placed on a
lazy kate, or skeined directly from the wheel. If the bobbin is left on the wheel the tension on the drive band must be lessened in order to allow the bobbin to turn freely. Yarn spun on
spindles can either be left on the spindle, or slipped onto a dowel for plying. The spindle or dowel is either placed in a lazy kate, or even a bowl to keep the spindle in one place while winding off the yarn. One end of the yarn is wound around the center piece and held firmly in place, while the rest of it is wrapped. The yarn is then taken over the left end of the top crossbar, down and under the right side of the lower crossbar, up and over the other end of the top crossbar, and then down and under the other end of the lower crossbar before returning to the starting point to complete one wrap. While rather awkward at first, one quickly picks up the rhythm. This process continues until the whole skein is wound. The time to skein yarn on a niddy-noddy depends on the yardage, and thus how many wraps need to be made. A larger niddy-noddy can speed up the skeining, but a very large one can be bulky, and thus slow down the time to do one wrap. At this point, the skein is secured by loose figure eight knots between each crossbar. This can be done with scrap yarn, or with
slip knots from the end of the skein. In either case, loosely securing each end with a slip knot makes it easier to find the ends in the finished skein. Generally 4 or more knots are tied. Once the yarn has been skeined, it can be dyed or washed to set the twist.
Weavers often dry their yarn under tension with a weight at the bottom of the loop, to stretch it out and remove some of the elasticity. Traditionally the niddy-noddy was used to the rhythm of a song, the opening line of which ran, ‘Niddy-noddy, niddy-noddy, two heads and one body.’ ==Other skein winders==