Be Kind, Rewind!
Remember VHS tapes? I used to hate rewinding... When I was a kid, we even had one of those super speed rewinders so we didnt have to wait for the VCR to do it--but I still hated it. My well-worn copies of WarGames and The Last Starfighter were never at the beginning when I wanted to watch one of them.
However..the rewind comment was more about yarn than anything. Do you rewind your yarn balls? As in wind them from the swift to the ball winder then wind again from the center pull ball? You should...you'd be amazed at the difference.
The ball on the left has been wound twice. The ball on the right is straight from its first wind. See the difference? The one on the left is huge by comparison. What difference does it make you say? Winding is certainly not the most enjoyable part of starting a new project...
There are really two reasons to rewind:
1. No annoying yarn barfing. You know when you go to tug at that center pull ball and a big wad of yarn comes out? Thats because its wound to tightly. Rewinding gives you the opportunity to prevent those tangles--or at least gives you an opportunity to deal with them before you've knit 1/2 inch of ribbing on a sock.
2. Minimize change in gauge. Try as you might to wind carefully, the force required to turn the swift by the ball winder does put extra tension in the yarn. You might end up with a bit of extra trouble on your hands when you wash the garment for the first time. The yarn knit from the center of the ball was "stretched" before you even knit with it. When that yarn hits the water, it will want to return to its natural unstretched state--changing your gauge! Yikes!
It does take a little time but rewinding is certainly worth it--try it once and you'll be amazed at the difference in the size of your yarn ball.
I am extra wary of tension with these balls of sock yarn because of my pattern choice:
La Digitessa by Yarnissima. I knit her Firestarter pattern a few months back and loved it! I downloaded several of her new patterns and this is the first one up at bat. It is certainly a challenging little sock--cabling twisted stitches on every row makes for some tense knitting! I'm enjoying it though and I can't wait to see how the gusset detail looks when its finished!