Knitting & Crocheting

One of my friends is begining to knit and she was asking on facebook how her knitter friends work with their yarn: roll it into a ball, pull it from the middle, etc.
Which made me wonder how all of you experienced knitters and crocheters work with your yarn.

I roll my yarn in a ball. I find that it keeps it untangled throughout my whole project, and it keeps it cleaner organizationally when I put it in my basket with my other balls of yarn.

I'm trying to find out what I like best. I was a "ball snob" for years, but then I bought a bunch of yarn in hanks and got a ball winder in hopes of being able to wind without an assistant. (Well, I need a swift, to really do that, and first I need to figure where to find room for it and ....) Oh, yea, and the other reason I bought the winder -- it's cheaper and smaller than a spinning wheel, which the kids were teasing for, when I suspect that all they really want to do is turn a crank.

So my current project is a nightmare of trying to work socks 2-at-a-time, from inside & outside of a center-pull ball. The lady who was demonstrating plying made it look so easy.

I don't like the allegedly center-pull skeins that a lot of mass produced yarn comes in. I'd rather just wind it into a round ball & work from the outside.

I always joke that my hobby isn't actually knitting, it's untangling yarn. 

I spent an entire flight from Chicago to NY doing nothing but working out a massive tangle.  I didn't finish untangling until I got to the hotel (I estimate the total hours spent on that tangle alone was about 7.5 hours).

I typically start with the skein as purchased.  If it gets unwound or otherwise tangled, I cut a wide "H" out of a piece of thick cardboard (diaper boxes are great for this) and wind the untangled yarn onto that.