Crochet Beginners: Yarn hanks, skeins, balls, or cakes?

What type of yarn shape should a beginner use for crochet: yarn hank, ball, skein, cake?

There are many different shapes that your yarn can come in. Yarn balls, yarn hanks, yarn skeins, and yarn cakes. There are many articles on the internet discussing the various pros and cons, but in my opinion there is only one question that matters:

“Can I crochet from this without it becoming a tangled, knotted mess?”

Yarn tangles itself easily. I highly recommend that absolute beginners start with the Woobles Easy Peasy yarn since it’s easier to manage. But this article is about shape.

What yarn shape is easy to use without creating a mess?

NOT a yarn hank.

Oh they’re so lovely. They’re so elegantly gorgeous. Hanks of yarn display so well before you start using them.

Cakes, skeins, and yarn balls are all solid for beginners. But don’t try hanks unless you’re willing to buy a yarn winder.

I wandered into a fantastic yarn shop with a friend of mine who knits and, like a child unleashed in Candyland, I brought home several hanks with glee. I did not have a yarn winder (didn’t know they existed yet). I had only used skeins before without issue. It would be the same, right? …Right?

I spent many miserable hours untangling a huge yarn mess. Valuable yarn was wasted because I had to cut it into smaller pieces to break the knots. In sum, I spent nearly half of my project time just managing the yarn.

Once you prepare to unwind your yarn from a hank, it loses it structure. It then becomes super susceptible to tangles if you ever move it. I have dogs who like to climb into my lab as I crochet. I’m always having to move the yarn ball/skein/cake and the piece I’m working on to accommodate. But every time I moved the pile of yarn from the hank it cost me hours of my life.

It was only after that I learned that there’s this a system with a yarn winder and yarn swift for converting a hank into a cake that you should follow. There is supposed to be a way to do it without the yarn swift, only the winder. So I bought the yarn winder (which worked great for rolling up leftover yarn and helping me clean up my hank mess and which I totally recommend you buy because it will save you so much time). BUT, without the yarn swift, I still failed and spent an additional 8 hours of my life untangling yarn. I bought the yarn swift, but I haven’t tried it yet — I’ll come up and update this when I build up the willpower.

Someday I will write a post on how to go to battle with a hank. Today is not that day. There are other posts and videos out there to search for, but I only recommend things on this blog that I’ve personally tried so I don’t have any recommendations yet.

In conclusion, until you feel prepared for this particular craft of the yarncrafts, stick to skeins, cakes, or balls as a beginner.

You should be aware all of these yarn options can still tangle if you unroll it too much, or if you find yourself frogging (that’s a term for undoing a bunch of your stitches because you made a mistake) often. But with skeins, cakes and, balls, it is quite feasible to get by without ever needing to meaningfully wind a ball of yarn by hand or making a massive mess.

If you do finding yourself needing to wind yarn up, or you’ve decided to establish dominance over a hank, check out my post on yarn ball winders:

Yarn Ball Winders – How to Wind Your Loose Yarn – Amy’s Amigurumi Adventure