How to Wind a Skein of Yarn Yourself

Thanks for the comments on my amaryllis. The bulb was a present for Christmas 2013 and it flowered early in 2014 and then again shortly afterwards. There has been nothing since then until now. It seems like a strange time of year for it to be flowering! Maybe it's because we are having such strange weather.

My holiday is quickly becoming a distant memory so I'd better get on and tell you a bit about it. We started off by staying two nights in the Village Inn in Arrochar. We stayed there last September as well. It's a lovely place to stop off for a day or two, to break the journey. We arrived on Sunday, May 10th. On the Monday we got the bus into Glasgow just to mosey round a bit and do some shopping. The husband bought me two pairs of boots for my birthday (which was last Thursday).

While we were waiting until it was time to have dinner, I decided to start rolling some of the cotton skeins for my sister-in-law's crocheted bag. I got myself nicely seated at the fire in a big leather chair and the husband took lots of photos. So this is how I roll a skein of yarn into a ball using only my own hands.

The skein comes like this; twisted and with one end tucked in.

Pull out the end that's tucked in ....

... and untwist the skein.

If you hold it up, it will just untwist itself.

My skein had a paper label attached; remove any labels.

Now find the place where the two ends of the skein have been used to tie it all up and keep it together.

Just undo the knot or loop.

Normally, if you are holding a skein for someone else to wind, you hold it like this; stretched between your two hands.

If you're going to roll it yourself you need your hands to do the rolling so you have to hold the skein between your wrists. On this occasion I used the label for starting to wind the yarn round. You can just wind it round your fingers if you prefer. Here goes  ...

... keep winding.

When you are winding the yarn across the bottom of the skein and approaching the left hand, use the right hand to lift the yarn round your wrist.

Continue winding the yarn across the top of the skein.

The yarn just works easily across the top of the skein ...

... and then slips over the right hand so you can continue winding across the bottom of the skein.

Now we've reached the left hand side again ...

... so give the yarn a bit of a lift round the left hand ...

... and continue winding across the top of the skein.

Every so often give the skein a good straighten out by stretching your hands apart as far as possible.

 Here I am, winding so fast my hands are a blur!

I hope you can follow what I was doing. It isn't easy to explain without actually being there with you.

That was just the first ball I needed wound! Before I could start crocheting the bag I had to wind another six skeins.

Well, that the just the start of my holiday and not very holiday-ish at all so far. I'll be back with more about the holiday and progress on the crocheting of the bag.

Until the next time! Which, hopefully, won't be too long.

Over the Sea to Skye

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my Yarndale post and especially about my skirt. And welcome to my new followers; nice to have you join in.

As I said in my last post, Yarndale was really the end of our holiday so now I need to go back to the start and tell you about the rest (basically all) of our holiday from the start.

The husband's holiday started a day before mine. Early (before 7 a.m.) on Thursday morning (11th of September) I left him to the ferry terminal in Larne. He was taking the ferry to Troon and then cycling to Arrochar, a few miles from Loch Lomond, in Scotland. I was going to work and then finishing the packing on Thursday evening!

On Friday morning I was up early again and back to Larne to catch the same ferry to Troon. It was a pleasant journey and I spent most of it reading my Country Living magazine and crocheting. When I arrived in Troon, I then drove to Arrochar to meet up with the husband. The weather was good though a bit misty at times. Arrochar is a beautiful village situated at the top of Loch Long, just a couple of miles from Loch Lomond. We had a bit of time for a drive and a leisurely walk before having a lovely meal in the Village Inn, celebrating the husband's special birthday. This is also where we stayed for the night. Here are some photos of Arrochar, the Village Inn and some of the locals that we met on our walk.

Another couple of pictures as the sun was going down. The mist was also coming down more and more.

On Saturday morning we started our journey to the Isle of Skye. The scenery driving through the Highlands is spectacular. We had a quick stop in Fortwilliam for a coffee and then didn't stop again until we reached Eilean Donan Castle. The castle is situated on an island at the point where three sea lochs meet, and is surrounded by some majestic scenery. It has been used in various films including Highlander and The World is not Enough, where is was used as the Scottish headquarters of MI6. I was able to get a few pictures for you.

Isn't it magnificent? Anyway, we carried on with our journey to Skye; it wasn't much further to go. We crossed the Skye bridge and felt that our holiday was really starting. This is where we spent our honeymoon and a few days later it is where we celebrated our wedding anniversary.

We had hired a house in Glendale, a tiny village on the north-western coastline of the Duirinish peninsula on Skye. This is the house we stayed in; a typical one for the area. It was built from stone and the walls are about two feet thick.

We had great views both to the village and across the bay.

This beautiful flower was growing in the garden and the neighbouring field. Neither of us knows what it is called.

There were several ruins of blackhouses round us. Glendale used to have a much bigger population before the clearances.

This place is so peaceful and quiet. We were able to relax and really chill out, especially as the weather was exceptionally good. We did plenty of sight seeing while we were there which I'll tell you about in another post (this one is getting too long!). There were two places we visited more than once during the week; the Red Roof Cafe and Neist Point. They deserve another post rather than squeezing them into this one. And there are a few other views to show you, as well as what I got up to craft-wise.

So that's it for this time. Hopefully it won't be too long before I'm back with the next instalment. The holiday washing is done but there's a mountain of ironing!