Yarn ball winder?

Last night, I decided to do some research on a variety of yarn ball winders.  I YouTubed winders, and did a shopping search for prices.

It seems that of all the simple "home" ball winders on the market, the Royal ball winder was receiving the best reviews.  Prices I found on various websites ranged from $35.00 - $68.00 (crazy price range for the SAME model!)

I am always a bit reserved when it comes to actually hitting the "buy" button for just about everything I ever buy.  I'd love to have one -- it seems like a super fun and easy gadget to have available to take care of those deflated partially used yarn skeins.




Now, of course, I have balled up my excess yarns in the past -- but those pesky balls roll all over the place when working with them.  A tip that was shared to stabilize the balls from all of that rolling was to simply place them into a small bowl.  Done deal.  Ball stabilized.

A ball winder takes care of the stabilization because it makes a "cake" ball rather than a round ball.  And the "pulling" of yarn comes from the center, NOT the outside.

As with any search ..... MANY Do-It-Yourself sites flooded my search results.

AND,  some super straight-forward instructions on DIY Ballwinder were found -- of course I was going to give it a try.

Results....
 -- a center-pull ball of yarn..... that was just a wee bit too tight. 

Lesson learned:  Start winding looser, Amy!


Of course, just as with a new skein of yarn, after a bit of crochet, the center starts emptying  --- problem solved.

Naturally, when I tried my second ball.... the results were MUCH better because I started wrapping the yarn around the tube much looser at the start.

 So now...although I really really really still want a new gadget to play with....

I really don't need one.

{{And I can used the saved $$ to buy more yarn, right??}}