You must have seen yarn packaged and presented for sale in your local crafts store in many different ways. Some of the most common ones are hanks, skeins and balls. Apparently there are 12 different ways of packaging yarn, and I must have seen 5-6. I doubt if someone buying is concerned with how yarn is packaged, they are more curious about the colours and textures. What matters is how yarn can be used once it is bought.
Clockwise from top left, you can see a pink HANK, grey SKEIN, white BALL and something that is cutely packaged as a CAKE. It certainly looks delicious!
In a hank, the yarn is rolled into a big circle then folded into itself. A hank MUST BE wound into a ball, or you will end up with a Franken-hank. The effective way to do this is to use a swift-and-ball-winder combination, but a chair back and hands work very well too. I don’t have a swift, so my knees pretend to be one! Most artisanal yarns are displayed in hanks.
The first photo is about my knees and a winder. A winder is a long term investment, but saves a lot of time. The second photo is when I didn’t have a winder, and used my knees and fingers to wind. It took forever, and long hours were devoted to the television as well. Knitting, like any hobby, can be as cheap and as expensive as you want it to be. It all depends on how sunny and patient your disposition is 🙂