Center Pull Ball - Power Version!

Yup, it was inevitable that power tools would make it's way into knitting (especially when I knit).  This is my way of making a center pull ball of yarn - it's the manly way.  You can do it the old fashion way, by hand, or you can buy one of those mechanical yarn winders.  But if you have a drinking straw and a power drill, you can wind yarn faster and have fun doing it.

This is what you'll need:

1. power drill - doesn't have to be an impact driver like the one I have; any power drill will do - 

variable speed would be a plus.

2. drinking straw - I used one of the straws you get when you buy bubble tea cuz it's big.

3. something to connect the straw to the drill - I used a connector piece that came with my drill that lets it connect to 

different screwdriver heads (and a bubble tea straw, as you can see here).

so basically I took the connector piece, wrapped some electrical tape around it so that it would make a tight fit in the straw.  Then I poked a hole in the straw using a knitting needle (in hindsight I should have poked the hole a little bit closer to one end of the straw).  Feed the yarn through the hole and down one end of the straw - if you poked the hole closer to one end, this part will be easy since you can probably thread the yarn through.  I needed to use a 

needle.  With the yarn sticking out the one end, connect the straw to the connector piece and attach the whole thing to your drill.  Now the fun part!  Let'R rip!  You might want to go slowly at first though.  Try not to pull too tightly on the yarn as you're winding it - this will make it easier to pull it off the straw when you're done.

And there you go, a center pull ball of yarn - looks kinda like a football.