Wind a Yarn Butterfly

Winding your yarn into smaller, more manageable amounts helps when working projects that have many color changes in a row.

Place the yarn tail between your thumb and the edge of your hand, hold the yarn tail in place, then take the working yarn and wrap it in a figure eight motion around your pinky finger and thumb. Wind as much as you think you may need for your project or a section of your project.

Cut the working yarn, leaving about a 6-inch yarn tail. Take the cut end of the yarn up and around the back of your middle finger to the front, down and around the crossed center of the figure 8 to the back (between the palm and crossed portion). Then take the yarn tail through the loop that is over the finger, remove the loop from the finger and give the yarn tail a little pull to secure a loop around the center of the figure eight. This creates the butterfly wings. Then, wrap the yarn around the center a few more times. Tuck the end in under a wrap.

To use the butterfly, pull the starting yarn end (the one that was between the thumb and the side of your hand). This is the end of the yarn you will use as you stitch your project.