DIY Yarn Bobbin Holder to Keep Yarn From Tangling While Crocheting or Knitting

I was so excited to start working on a corner to corner (C2C) crochet project, also known as graphgans. However, when I started adding in new colors my yarn kept getting tangled!! How frustrating. I bet it also happens to some of you especially if you are working on any kind of crochet or knitting project with more than one color let alone 3 or 4! I was spending more time untangling yarn than I was crocheting! Between scouring the internet and ideas from my hubby, I decided to make my own Yarn Bobbin Holder. It was super easy to make with just a few tools, a couple dowels, and a scrap piece of wood and I completed it in just about an hour.

Supplies:

3 -4 Dowels ( I used 3/8 inch)

Scrap Piece of Wood (2×6 was used in this tutorial)

Drill with Drill Bit (Drill bit should be just slightly larger than dowel size)

Saw to cut dowels (Hand saw or even a knife would work)

Sandpaper (I used an orbital sander but hand sanding will be fine)

Pencil and Ruler

DIY Yarn Bobbin Holder to Keep Yarn From Tangling While Crocheting or Knitting

Step 1:

Mark your wood where you want to place the dowels. I kept my holes about 3 to 4 inches apart and each row offset of the other so that I would have plenty of room for larger bobbins of yarn.

DIY Yarn Bobbin Holder to Keep Yarn From Tangling While Crocheting or Knitting

Step 2:

Mark your drill bit so that you know where to stop when drilling the holes. I marked the drill bit with a Sharpie at a 1 inch depth so that my dowels would stay in but would also be easy to move around. You want to make sure that you don’t go all the way through your wood.

Then keeping your drill as straight as possible drill your holes where you marked the wood down to the mark on your drill bit.

DIY Yarn Bobbin Holder to Keep Yarn From Tangling While Crocheting or Knitting

Step 3:

Go to town sanding that wood so that there is no little places that would snag your yarn. I used an orbital sander but you could just hand sand if you don’t have access to one. I was able to sand the entire wood base in just a few minutes but hand sanding will take much longer.

Make sure to round off the edges slightly so that they are not sharp.

DIY Yarn Bobbin Holder to Keep Yarn From Tangling While Crocheting or Knitting

Step 4:

Cut the dowels. I chose to make 12 dowels for the 12 holes that I could fit into my board, however you may have a scrap of wood that would take more or less dowels while allowing for enough space between bobbins.

I decided to make my dowels 9 inches long so that once placed in the board at an inch depth I would have an 8 inch high bobbin.

DIY Yarn Bobbin Holder to Keep Yarn From Tangling While Crocheting or Knitting

Step 5:

Remove the stickers and sand the dowels.

Removing the stickers from the dowels was a real pain. If you have enough dowels you could easily choose to just not use the part with the sticker, but I was trying to save as much money as possible.

Sand the dowels with a couple different grains of sandpaper so that they are nice and smooth. This way your yarn can be pulled off once your crochet project is complete.

Make sure to round off the ends of the dowel as well.

DIY Yarn Bobbin Holder to Keep Yarn From Tangling While Crocheting or Knitting

Step 6:

Place the dowels in the holes and you’re done! Time to start using your Yarn Bobbin Holder!!

DIY Yarn Bobbin Holder to Keep Yarn From Tangling While Crocheting or Knitting

Of course you will have to either place a skein of yarn onto the dowels or wind it on. I chose to wind the yarn on so that I could use the same store bought skein for different sections of my project.

Simply load the dowels with yarn and then while you are crocheting move the bobbins around from hole to hole on the board so that the yarn stays tangle free! Yay! More time to complete projects.

DIY Yarn Bobbin Holder to Keep Yarn From Tangling While Crocheting or Knitting

Now, I am completely at ease when crocheting my projects. I haven’t tried to use the Yarn Bobbin Holder while knitting yet, but I am sure it will come in handy!!

What projects will you use this Yarn Bobbin Holder on?? Are you working on a graphgan, or some other project? I would love to hear from you on how you use this Yarn Bobbin Holder in the comments below. Please don’t forget to share this DIY with your yarn buddies as well!

Happy tangle free crocheting (or knitting)!!

14 comments on “DIY Yarn Bobbin Holder Keep yarn tangle free with this afternoon project.

    • That’s great Rita!! Please be sure to let me know if he has any questions with the project. The DIY Yarn Bobbin Holder really does help to keep your yarn untangled. Glad to hear that you are able to get one made for you.

    • When you turn the work you can either rotate the entire spool holder or you can move whatever individual pins you need to straighten out the yarn coming into the piece. It’s kind of personal preference. Glad you like the yarn bobbin holder!

  1. I can’t wait to get started on your wonderful, very useful idea!!! I will be starting a very complex graphghan within the next day or two. Loads of color changes in this one – whew! This will really help to keep my curse words at a minimum 🙂

    • Thank you Tina. I know how frustrating it can be when you are working with a lot of colors. You can also make a bobbin holder in different sizes so that you have more dowel for those larger multi-color projects. And yes, keeping the curse words to a minimum is always a bonus! 🙂

  2. I am currently working on a c2c project that has 15 different colors and the last 10 rows have had 25-30 color changes! Your device is great and similar to my setup only Im using steel pegboard and 4” hangers. The yarn is wrapped on 2.5 x 3.75 plastic spools. Needless to say, each row is a challenge. I’ll probably make and use your diy project design for smaller projects. Great idea and presentation.

  3. I love this! If I didn’t want a longer board with more dowels, could you wind 2 bobbins of yarn on one dowel? Or would the yarn tangle if the dowels don’t spin? Perhaps the dowels would need to be a bit taller to accommodate two windings of yarn.

  4. Great idea…..how far apart are the holes for the dowels?
    Looks like this would work great for C2C, my yarn always tangles and takes quite a while to untangle.

    Thank you
    Joan S

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