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Sometimes you'll see yarn wound up in a twisty bundle. This is called a hank. In order to knit with a hank, you'll need to unwind it into a ball first. Learn how to do it in this video!

Now, you may be wondering, why do hanks exist in the first place? Isn't a ball of yarn good enough? Why the complication?

One reason is this: yarn dyers who dye by hand do so by looping yarn into a big circle and then dying that big yarn circle. Once the yarn is dyed and dried, the easiest way to package that yarn is by twisting it into a bundle that would be a hank!

Rolling the yarn into a ball or into a skein requires machinery that can be expensive and/or timeconsuming whereas hanks are much easier and quicker to make.

For this reason, yarn that's wound in hanks are perceived to be artisanal or high quality. Almost all handdyed yarn are sold in hanks.

Personally, I love hanks. Sure, you need to wind them up, but the yarn looks so much prettier in a hank, like it has space to "breathe." And the yarn winding experience gives you time to "get to know" your yarn before you knit with it. But, I'm a bit romantic when it comes to yarn, so there you go!

Music by Kurt Vile, "Freeway": http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kur...
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