Secrets of the Nostepinne- wind your yarn!
April 22, 2009 by Noreen Crone-Findlay
Filed under eco projects & green projects & recycling craft, tutorial, yarn, yarn crafts
Happy Earth Day!
Today’s video is quite Earth friendly. It features an old kind of technology:
photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
The Nostepinne. The whozzawhat?
Nostepinnes are basically friendly little sticks that you use to wind a ball of yarn on.
A reader sent me a note, asking about winding yarn, and saying that she didn’t have a yarn winder.
Well, I DO have a yarn winder. It’s old as the hills, as I bought it when I was 15 and had just saved up all my babysitting and part time jobs money and bought myself a knitting machine.
The yarn winder is now somewhat fragile, and so I don’t use it very often.
Instead, I wind balls of yarn with nostepinnes.
My husband upcycled the nostepinne in the picture from a handrail that we had installed in his Mum’s house to make it safer for her to navigate.
When she passed on, we took the excess handrails down and cut them up and turned them on the lathe.
My bit of Mum’s house became a much used and loved nostepinne, and I feel the touch of her hand in it still!
It’s easier to get the hang of using a nostepinne by watching someone use it.
So, I have made a video of ‘How to wind a ball of yarn on the nostepinne’ in honor of Earth Day – to celebrate a very simple tool that works really well! Here’s the tutorial:
There seems to be something troublesome happening with the embedding link, so…
if the video isn’t working properly for you, please go to the direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xuc11P4Wi4
Hope you had a lovely Earth Day, and have done some kind of upcycling, recycling or other form of green living and earth keeping!
Your Noste video says Video Not Available
Hi Janet
) Noreen
Yes… the link was hinky, but it’s been fixed now…. thank goodness! Ack! It’s teeth gnashing time when it doesn’t work!
I’ve always wanted to know the correct way to do this. I’ve had one of these for years.
Terrific Noreen…..now I want one!!!
Thanks, Jacqui! You’ll love it! Nostie’s are great!
Hi Cindy
Hope the video helps you enjoy your nostepinne!
Noreen, I wish I had found this link just a few days ago! I never heard of a nostepinne but always marveled at store-bought balls of twine that pull out from the center.
A couple of days ago I needed to ball a skein of yarn. Since there was no one handy to hold the skein while I wound, I stretched it between my own feet and proceeded. All the while, as I bent and adjusted to pull the yarn from the skein, I was thinking “I’m way too old to be doing this – oh my aching back!”
You are such a font of knowledge. Please keep the videos coming
Thank you so much, Eileen!
)
)
Sorry about your sore back! Been there and done that… nostepinnes are our friends! LOL
And, yes, I am planning on making lots more videos. I am having so much fun making videos.
It feels like the best way to answer questions from readers…
I love teaching workshops, and this way, I get to do it from my own studio and don’t have to fly away anywhere to teach!
You are so creative, Noreen. And you and your hubby have a great instinct for recycling and reusing items.
Thank you so much, Mary Emma!
and, yes, Jim and I are dyed in the wool recycler/reclaimer/upcyclers! Love it!
There’s something so satisfying (and mesmerizing) about winding a ball of yarn. I’ll have to try a nostepinne now that I see how it works. Thanks!
Hi Perry
I agree! I love winding balls of yarn! and I find it so gratifying to do it on the nostepinne. I have a ball winder machine, but I rarely use it anymore…. the nostie is so contemplative and such a pleasure.
I hope that you will enjoy yours as much as I enjoy mine!