Rachel, I cannot possibly thank you enough - you are a hero!!! 💐💕 🎉 I often carry two yarns while knitting, which is really fun...unless it doesn't work out, and I need to rip it out and separate the two yarns - they naturally end up plyed around each other. Not a huge deal on a small sample, but anything over about 25 yards is a nightmare. Well, today I was able to separate over 200 yards of doubled yarn with a minimum of fuss! 🤩 I have arthritis in my hands which makes it too painful to twist a dowel or cardboard tube, so I took a closed umbrella swift and mounted it horizontally, using silicone bands keeping the arms tightly closed. I improvised a sort of spreader bar I could hold with one hand to keep the two strands of yarn apart so they would wrap around the top and bottom ends of the swift. That allowed me to use my other hand to crank the swift. I could even sit down while I did it! Once I had enough yarn wrapped onto the swift, I remounted the swift vertically and used my ball winder to wind off the top wrap of yarn off the swift. Then I slid the bottom yarn wrap up the swift, attached the end to the ball in progress, and continued winding off. It works out well because you can just slide the wrapped yarn up or down on the swift to align with the ball winder so it unwraps smoothly. Definitely kind of a Rube Goldberg setup, but it worked great! As you pointed out, the tricky part is getting the tension of the plyed yarn coming out of the bag right, but even having to stop and pull the bag down by hand was still quite efficient. The only additional issue I found with The Swift Method is that the diameters of my closed swift are not the same at the top and bottom, which means that one end wraps a little faster than the other, causing one hanging strand to eventually get much shorter than the other. I discovered I could just unwrap the shorter strand one round to even out the length and continue. This is a complete game-changer for anyone who works yarn: knitters, crocheters, spinners, and weavers. It opens up all kinds of creative possibilities. Thank you for sharing your brilliant technique!
I've watched several videos on how to do this and your method is by far the best of them all. Thank you so much! You've revolutionized my yarn experience!
Omg, the way I Gasped and said "That's actually genius " when seeing this. Made the splitting process 1000 times faster, thank you so much for sharing!
I needed this trick so badly today, your solution is very effective and everything I had tried earlier was impossible and a hot mess. You saved a sweater project for me. THANK YOU !!
Thank you so much for this video. The husband has expanded on this, as I needed to split my yarn 🧶 into three. Just put an extra round in the middle. Thank you for helping me save a tonne of time. Cheers Kavita
Oh how you have saved me from hours of agony. I have tons of worsted yarn but love the DK and fingerling weight yarns for some of my projects BUT can only find the colors in worsted weight yarn. I have been cutting my yarn then split it to keep it from knotting up. Your method it PERFECT! Full length strains and no knotting. YEAH! Thank you for this video!
Brilliant! This is fantastic. Prior to this I thought I needed some kind of a machine to get it done. LOL 😂 Splitting yarn is also great if you want to use two different colors together to create a nice effect or Segway from one color to another.
I'm so glad I found your vid!! I've done the splitting before, and it was A MESS! This bag trick is SOOO simple and easy! Thank you! I purchased 1 skein of yarn during some travelling, and chose a pattern that called for thinner yarn. I didn't realize it right away, so now I have to go back and frog it. But at least I can still work the pattern with this yarn! Thanks to your handy tricks! 💕
My goodness looks so easy!! I've split a sweater worth of yarn before and i clipped the yarn to the ball to hang it for it to spin, putting it in a bag is such a great idea! It took me ages before having to stop every meter or so to move the clip! Thank you!
omg you little genius!!! the tutorial i watched prior to this involved making a spindle spinner thing with a hook and some contraption with a handle. I don't want to buy stuff just to split yarn your way is so much faster and accessible!
Thanks so much for the video! I am unplying I Love This Yarn worsted weight. The bag and twist tie wasn't working as well as yours. I think it was because ILTY slides too easily. I took a chopstick and wound the yarn around it once and stuck the stick through both sides of the bag. It puts the perfect amount of tension on it because I want to push the bag down as I go. I also use a music stand to hold the dowel soy arms don't get as tired. I also put duck tape on the dowel where the yarn will wind and it helps it slide off more easily. Thanks again!
Genius method to do this and i'm so glad I found your video. I was really hoping I wouldn't need to spend hours in a multiple step process to un-ply some yarn and now I totally can!
This is genius!!! I can’t afford one of the nice hand crank machines and need to unply three balls of yarn and i’ve been doing it by hand! 😂 this saves me a crazy amount of time! thanks for the tip!
What a legend! Thank you! I have been using ricorumi wool and to unravel the strands I have been holding up my crochet and spinning it around in the air until it hits me in the face and gets in a tangled mess!!!!! 😂
Thank you soooo much!! A while back, I thrifted some cotton yarn which I love, but the colors that were spun together weren't really my taste and now I can split them easily!!!!!
I used a binder clip to hold the end of the yarn to the skein as it spun, but a twisty tied bag is sooooo much better! Definitely changing to this method, thanks!
Thank you! I hate all the color options for my pattern and can't seem to find it in the right gauge! I can't wait to try this on the color of yarn I've been eyeing.
This method does work but it still takes quite a long time 😅 my yarn is still spinning and it’s been around 2 hrs. Granted my ball was around 3x the size as the one in the video. I also found a way to use a music stand like another commenter suggested and it works but you have to come back to it every 3-4 mins to keep it spinning onto the dowel. Gave me time to fold my laundry though which is a plus.
Ply to separate tubes on the dowel to avoid 4:15 fiber twist damage. Restore fiber to mfr twist at 3:55 during rewind: skein-wind, reversing or untwisting lead each ~20 winds. Overtight rewinding changes fiber guage, finished project fit/blocking.
So I tried to use this one smaller yarn- DK. And it didn’t work BECAUSE the weight of the yarn isn’t heavy enough! BUT I put the ball of yarn on a drill and that did the trick😉
Works very well, thank you. Just not not possible to split a whole skein of wool like this, it strains hands and arms a lot. I will try splitting as I knit.
Thank you for this. Thin yarn is impossible to find in a variety of colours, or it's ridiculously expensive when you do. This helps so much
Oh my goodness! This is brilliant. It still took me a while to get the weighting right but it was definitely easier than doing it by hand. Thank you!
Rachel, I cannot possibly thank you enough - you are a hero!!! 💐💕 🎉
I often carry two yarns while knitting, which is really fun...unless it doesn't work out, and I need to rip it out and separate the two yarns - they naturally end up plyed around each other. Not a huge deal on a small sample, but anything over about 25 yards is a nightmare. Well, today I was able to separate over 200 yards of doubled yarn with a minimum of fuss! 🤩
I have arthritis in my hands which makes it too painful to twist a dowel or cardboard tube, so I took a closed umbrella swift and mounted it horizontally, using silicone bands keeping the arms tightly closed. I improvised a sort of spreader bar I could hold with one hand to keep the two strands of yarn apart so they would wrap around the top and bottom ends of the swift. That allowed me to use my other hand to crank the swift. I could even sit down while I did it! Once I had enough yarn wrapped onto the swift, I remounted the swift vertically and used my ball winder to wind off the top wrap of yarn off the swift. Then I slid the bottom yarn wrap up the swift, attached the end to the ball in progress, and continued winding off. It works out well because you can just slide the wrapped yarn up or down on the swift to align with the ball winder so it unwraps smoothly.
Definitely kind of a Rube Goldberg setup, but it worked great! As you pointed out, the tricky part is getting the tension of the plyed yarn coming out of the bag right, but even having to stop and pull the bag down by hand was still quite efficient. The only additional issue I found with The Swift Method is that the diameters of my closed swift are not the same at the top and bottom, which means that one end wraps a little faster than the other, causing one hanging strand to eventually get much shorter than the other. I discovered I could just unwrap the shorter strand one round to even out the length and continue.
This is a complete game-changer for anyone who works yarn: knitters, crocheters, spinners, and weavers. It opens up all kinds of creative possibilities. Thank you for sharing your brilliant technique!
I've watched several videos on how to do this and your method is by far the best of them all. Thank you so much! You've revolutionized my yarn experience!
Well ... That was simple smart! I used to encooperate my feet in untwisting 😅 then I thought I should build my self a mini untwisting NXT robot.
Haha, doing the whole hanging skein in a bag thing makes it so much easier. Although, a little yarn untwisting robot sounds pretty cool too!
Me too! And sometimes my teeth!
I used to encooperate my chairs lol
Hahahah..😂me too..and im doing it right now and reply to your comment..now im trying this trick video to seperate a yarn..it works .
Omg, the way I Gasped and said "That's actually genius " when seeing this.
Made the splitting process 1000 times faster, thank you so much for sharing!
Absolute genius! Best method I’ve seen. Thank you!
I needed this trick so badly today, your solution is very effective and everything I had tried earlier was impossible and a hot mess. You saved a sweater project for me. THANK YOU !!
You just saved me SO MUCH TIME I really cannot thank you enough for this idea!! I’ve been doing it a very much harder and more time consuming way!
Easiest method I have seen. Very smart
You are an absolute genius omg this is amazing
Thank you so much for this video. The husband has expanded on this, as I needed to split my yarn 🧶 into three. Just put an extra round in the middle.
Thank you for helping me save a tonne of time.
Cheers
Kavita
Oh how you have saved me from hours of agony.
I have tons of worsted yarn but love the DK and fingerling weight yarns for some of my projects BUT can only find the colors in worsted weight yarn. I have been cutting my yarn then split it to keep it from knotting up.
Your method it PERFECT! Full length strains and no knotting. YEAH! Thank you for this video!
Brilliant! This is fantastic. Prior to this I thought I needed some kind of a machine to get it done. LOL 😂 Splitting yarn is also great if you want to use two different colors together to create a nice effect or Segway from one color to another.
I've tried so many ways of unplying yarn, I must say, this one will work far better than my feeble attempts, thank you
I'm so glad I found your vid!! I've done the splitting before, and it was A MESS! This bag trick is SOOO simple and easy! Thank you! I purchased 1 skein of yarn during some travelling, and chose a pattern that called for thinner yarn. I didn't realize it right away, so now I have to go back and frog it. But at least I can still work the pattern with this yarn! Thanks to your handy tricks! 💕
My goodness looks so easy!! I've split a sweater worth of yarn before and i clipped the yarn to the ball to hang it for it to spin, putting it in a bag is such a great idea! It took me ages before having to stop every meter or so to move the clip! Thank you!
Genius! Ran out of yarn for sweater/had same color in 2 ply. Saved me buying another 300 yd. Skein when only needed 50. Thanks!
omg you little genius!!! the tutorial i watched prior to this involved making a spindle spinner thing with a hook and some contraption with a handle. I don't want to buy stuff just to split yarn your way is so much faster and accessible!
Thanks so much for the video! I am unplying I Love This Yarn worsted weight. The bag and twist tie wasn't working as well as yours. I think it was because ILTY slides too easily. I took a chopstick and wound the yarn around it once and stuck the stick through both sides of the bag. It puts the perfect amount of tension on it because I want to push the bag down as I go. I also use a music stand to hold the dowel soy arms don't get as tired. I also put duck tape on the dowel where the yarn will wind and it helps it slide off more easily. Thanks again!
Genius method to do this and i'm so glad I found your video.
I was really hoping I wouldn't need to spend hours in a multiple step process to un-ply some yarn and now I totally can!
Thoroughly enjoyed your presentation style and background music. Informative and relaxing at the same time! 😄
Finally a method that doesn’t take 5 hands to do it!
THANK YOU SO MUCH LIFE SAVER FR CUZ i was rn trying to split them but itll take me forever cuz its so much yarn and SUPER thick
Now just how did you come up with that? Pure genius 🤔😉
I cannot thank you enough for this!!!! I have a tonne of 8ply and only need 4ply. Thanks again. 😍😍
hi did it work? hee
This is genius!!! I can’t afford one of the nice hand crank machines and need to unply three balls of yarn and i’ve been doing it by hand! 😂 this saves me a crazy amount of time! thanks for the tip!
Thank you, this tip came in the right moment
I love this! now if only there was a way to slighty automate it so its even faster cause having to do an entire skein can still take a long time
What a legend! Thank you! I have been using ricorumi wool and to unravel the strands I have been holding up my crochet and spinning it around in the air until it hits me in the face and gets in a tangled mess!!!!! 😂
You're genius! Laughed and loved it! Thank you.
YOU SAVED MY PROJECT. Thank you so much!
This is absolute genius! saved me a ton of tangle, thanks
Thank goodness I found this! Was about to stay up until the wee hours (lol its already 0135) separating a ball of yarn. Thank you very much!
Thank you soooo much!! A while back, I thrifted some cotton yarn which I love, but the colors that were spun together weren't really my taste and now I can split them easily!!!!!
Absolutely genius
This is so helpful! No more tangling yarn around my toes!
Just trying to do this. Excellent video. Now I know how to not struggle with trying to make 2 ply from 4 ply. Thank you.❤
I want to say THANK YOU. Bag idea Fabulous.Yes
I used a binder clip to hold the end of the yarn to the skein as it spun, but a twisty tied bag is sooooo much better! Definitely changing to this method, thanks!
This video needs more views!!!
this looks so much easier then the way i did it! it'll be so helpful in the future!
Thank you! I hate all the color options for my pattern and can't seem to find it in the right gauge! I can't wait to try this on the color of yarn I've been eyeing.
genius!!!! i'm so excited to try this
You’re so smart. Uhgg im gonna have to give this a try. Thank you!
This is brilliant! I don't have a dowel, but I do have cardboard toilet rolls I can use. Thank you for this!
Dios mio! Tu idea es maravillosa! A mi jamas se me hubiera ocurrido! Muchas muchas gracias!❤❤❤
SO brilliant!!!
I love your teaching style. Please give a simple tutorial on the magic ring. Some people make it look so hard and over complicated.
Like all the others here: EXACTLY what I needed to see! Genius! Love from MN❤️
Thanks for such a great and brilliant idea
This method does work but it still takes quite a long time 😅 my yarn is still spinning and it’s been around 2 hrs. Granted my ball was around 3x the size as the one in the video. I also found a way to use a music stand like another commenter suggested and it works but you have to come back to it every 3-4 mins to keep it spinning onto the dowel. Gave me time to fold my laundry though which is a plus.
This looks so simple....let's hope I can be as clever!! Thank you from Cape Town!
Ply to separate tubes on the dowel to avoid 4:15 fiber twist damage. Restore fiber to mfr twist at 3:55 during rewind: skein-wind, reversing or untwisting lead each ~20 winds. Overtight rewinding changes fiber guage, finished project fit/blocking.
So I tried to use this one smaller yarn- DK. And it didn’t work BECAUSE the weight of the yarn isn’t heavy enough! BUT I put the ball of yarn on a drill and that did the trick😉
Now I can use my bulky yarn 😊 Thank you for this helpul tip 👍👌👏
Smart! I should try tonight. Thanks!
Brillant idea! Thanks i needed it.
This is definitely easier than what I've been doing; thanks!
Thank you 🎉 I am using my 25mm knitting needle and a zip lock bag and it totally works😂
Thank you! This is super helpful.
Perfect. Exactly what i needed
I did this with worsted weight. It worked well but took sooo long. It was definitely a workout!
It took a reaaally long time but it works!
Many tks :)
Thank you so much for the trick ! Thanks to you I’ll spare time and efforts
Just what I needed!!
Thanks, a great tip, saved a lot of frustration! Sydney, Australia.
Super, this is just what I needed to see
This is brilliant! Thank you!
omg thank you so much for making this vid.... really helpful for me
Well, I came here to find out how to do this, and I found it :-) Brilliant, thank you! 🙂
Thank you for this!
I was looking for this! Thank you! ❤️
Thank you very much for this super helpful tip. Now I can continue my work easily! 🍀🙏🏼🍀
This was so helpful! Thank you so much 😊
Yay, I'm glad you found it helpful, you're welcome!
Genius! Thank you!!
Brilliant! Thank you!
Brilliant. Thank you.
Fire those needing to use this hack, a Temu or Shein ziplock bag works well. Thanks for this video
You are amazingggg thank you for sharing this!
Freaking brilliant. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
good technique, thanks
Thanks for a great tip!
Works very well, thank you. Just not not possible to split a whole skein of wool like this, it strains hands and arms a lot. I will try splitting as I knit.
Omg!!!!! Thank you very much that was so easy and quick and helpfull !!!❤❤❤❤❤
That was so useful!!!
Genius. Thank you. Was doing a blanket stitch on a pillow and my yarn was too thick.
brilliant 💡
Awesome! You should add a donation link to this video. 🥰
Good method!
THANK YOUUUUU
Wow, this is genius.
Wow thank you so much for this video!!!!!💕
Looking to do this with my super bulky (6) yarn! Question: is the yarn weight when separated a 3 then?
Thankgoodness i asked n seached this topic. I have bulky yarn i like but no other bulky. Just not sure how many plies it has.
Great video. Thank you.
I was going to do this but I thought I needed a tutorial before i Messed up completely😂
thank you so much!!
Thank you so much for this video! 😁
Thanks so much! This is awesome!