I did it! I solved the case of my wonky yarn cakes! I imagine others may have the same issue with their ball winders, so I thought I would put together a post on how to fix your yarn ball winder. You can see from the before-and-after images below that something was definitely off!
If your yarn winder isn’t winding correctly, keeps slipping, or is making crooked or uneven yarn cakes, the gears inside the winder may have slipped out of alignment. Luckily, this was a quick fix once I figured out what was causing the problem.
The particular brand I purchased is the Knit Picks Yarn Ball Winder, but I imagine many of them are built the same way. This ball winder is a little workhorse for me and, for the most part, does a great job winding yarn into nice little cakes. The first time I noticed the cakes not winding properly, I called Knit Picks, and they were very good about sending me a new ball winder. But then when it started happening again, I figured it must be something in the internal mechanism that needed adjustment, so I took the winder apart to see.
Keep reading to see how to fix your yarn ball winder.
Why Is My Yarn Winder Not Winding Correctly?
In my case, the problem was caused by the larger plastic gear slipping out of position and sitting on top of the smaller gear instead of meshing with it. Once I repositioned the gears so the teeth fit together properly, the winder worked normally again.
How to Fix Your Yarn Ball Winder
To fix your broken ball winder, you will first need to twist off the cone-shaped bobbin from the main base of the winder.
Next, use a Phillips-head tool to remove the screw from the plate beneath where the bobbin was removed, then remove the plate and set it aside.
Ahhh … here was the issue! You see how in the photo below the larger plastic gear is sitting on top of the small gear? This is why the winder wasn’t winding properly. The gears should mesh so that the teeth fit together properly.
To fix this, gently push the larger gear back away from the smaller one and down until the teeth mesh. It should now look like this.
Now screw the top plate back on and replace the bobbin. All that is left is trying it out. Grab a hank or skein of yarn and wind it up. Perfect!
Have you had this problem? I would love to know if this helped fix it. Let me know in the comments below.
Now that you have your yarn cakes made, read my clever yarn hack for keeping them wound neatly and from turning into a tangled mess while in use or in storage!
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Wow great job! You’re every clever to figure this out. I thought it was my fault! Had the same problem with my knit picks winder. Thank you so much for sharing! I was able to fix mine through your help.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! You saved my Christmas projects!
Oh my gosh- I thought I was doing something wrong because my ball winder (knit Picks) kept winding flying saucers, not cakes! I opened it up and the large gear was not connecting with the small one at all! the edge of the large gear was riding on the top surface of the small one! I wasn’t able to get it to line up AND reattach ( I also removed the phillps head screw on the bottom of the winder platform, so I called and a new one is on the way!
OH. MY. GAWWWW. This saved my neck. Thank you thank you thank you! We seriously had this device for 2 whole days before it broke. My 12 year old made just 5 cakes before it stopped working… AND she was super gentle with it!!! What the heck??? You rock, and also you’re my hero 🙂
This hack saved me Money and a 60 mile trip to the store. It was a bit hard to do but with a screw driver I pryed It up and then pushed the top gear down and it worked! 🙂
Have a great day ❄️👍😁
Thanks so much for this solution. I was getting really frustrated and was ready to cry. Didn’t want to go through the “call the company” stuff, as my winder was gifted to me for Christmas year before last. I found your solution and checked it out in mine and now it’s all better. <3
Thank you thank you!!! I was getting ready to throw away the same yarn wonder and you helped me save it!!!
It worked. Congrats to you for having the courage to take the thing apart. I was close to doing something like that and was so glad to find your post. Of course, that was after winding a ball without the criss-crossing of yarn, which turned out to be quite a mess that was, even though it looked like a ball, didn’t feed from the center but tangled on itself.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I couldn’t figure out why my ball winder was suddenly not making nicely wound cakes! I had a bit of trouble trying to get the big gear to snap into place but, in the end, I prevailed. Just one more example of why I love your blog so much!
Thank you! My Japanese yarn winder never worked quite right. I was on the verge of giving it away because the yarn cakes always came out weird and lopsided. I took it apart, and sure enough, the gears weren’t meshing. Now that it’s fixed, I finally wound my first-ever perfect yarn cake yesterday.
Thank you so much for this article as my shop yarn winder was not working right and my customers need their yarn in cakes. So I look up how to fix a knit pick winder and I found this. I fixed it and we are back in business winding cakes of yarn again!