A Bobbin for Crochet, Mini Center-pull Skein

Open hand with green yarn tucked between the thumb and the side of the hand. White background.

How to make a bobbin for crochet

In my last post about intarsia crochet I mentioned winding off separate “bobbins” for your work. One way to make a bobbin for crochet is by making a mini center-pull skein. You can also just wind off a ball if you like, but then it rolls around all over the place. The nice thing about a center-pull skein is that it doesn’t do that.

Bobbins, or mini-skeins are really useful for any kind of colorwork you may be doing, like crochet intarsia, as I did, or for corner to corner (c2c) crochet colorwork patterns. In knitting you may use these for stranded colorwork.

So here’s how to make one. Pulling from your large skein, ball, yarn-cake, etc. Lay your yarn across your hand. Keep track of your end and don’t let it get tangled up.

open hand with green yarn wrapped around thumb and between pinky and ring finger. White background.

Wrap the yarn around your thumb, and then begin to wrap it around your pinky.

Open hand in front of a white backgroound with green yarn wrapped in a figure 8 around the pinky and thumb.

You are going to make a “figure eight” with your yarn around your thumb and pinky.

An open hand with green yarn wrapped in a figure 8 pattern around the pinky and thumb several times. White background.

And do it over and over and over.

Hand holding a small bundle of green yarn in front of a white background.

Then pinch the middle of the figure eight where the yarn strands cross about half-way between your thumb and pinky, and pull it off your fingers.

hand holding a small center-pull bobbin of yarn.

Then begin wrapping the working end around the center…

Hand holding a small center-pull bobbin of yarn in front of a white background.

Wrap several times, and you’re done! To the right there you see the yarn end I started with sticking out of the center, and several wraps around the center. You can pull from that beginning end that is coming out of the center and thus you have a mini center-pull skein to use as a separate bobbin for your intarsia crochet!

Happy Thanksgiving this week! We’ll be heading north about an hour and a half drive to spend Thursday and Friday with my in-laws. I’ll probably be making baby mittens and hats while there. I’ll be participating in a small holiday craft market at my husband’s employer very soon, so I need lots of finished items! This will be my first “craft fair”, and I’m excited! I’m glad it’s small though.

Happy crocheting!