How Do You Wash/Scour Yarn Without Tangling - Part 1

No matter how much you spend, a niddy-noddy is the best tool for preparing a skein for washing without tangling. 

A niddy-noddy, one of the simplest and most useful tools for spinners.  It can be a fancy turned, or a very plain wooden tool, or even economically made of PVC plumbing tees and easy to cut pipe.  There isn’t a standard size for niddy-noddies.  I happen to have six all different sizes.  

It looks somewhat like a capital I, with one of the short ends turned 90 degrees compared to the other end.  Since it is 3 dimensional, in sketches or photos someone unfamiliar can be very confused at what they are looking at or how it could be useful.  It is used for winding a skein a off your spinning wheel bobbin, before washing/scouring.  

I tie a simple loop at the end of my yarn, slip it on one of the arms of the niddy-noddy, then hold the tool by the long bar in the middle and zig zag up and down as I go around the four ends to make a one wrap around the tool. 

Tip and turn your wrist to reach all the ends.  This photo shows that I have gone around three arms and the next arm will be back at the start by my first loop.  Continue winding following the path of the original wrap until your bobbin is empty. Some say part of the the name comes from the nodding motion that the tool does as it is tipped and tilted. My left hand stays in the same position the whole time.

You now have a skein on the niddy-noddy, but before you remove it, I recommend tying the skein in 4 places loosely.  You can set it sideways on a flat surface to do this.  

I usually do a self-tie by removing the last wrap, then making 4 loose half-hitch knots, one on each side, as I continue around the niddy-noddy.  For my own sanity I make the last knot a double hitch.  This way I always know which is the first knot I have to open when I’m going to use the yarn or make a ball of yarn after scouring.