A Ball of Yarn

I don't own a yarn ball winder of any kind.
I don't mind to wind my skeins of yarn by hand.
I have hand-winded eight hundred yard long skeins of lace yarn at least once.
I love to see how colors change from a skein to a ball, and finally to a sweater.
It's very important to me to knit a swatch of a new yarn before I start any project not because I want to get the right gauge, but also I want to see how the colors played out.
Some colorways only look pretty in a ball of yarn, I have learned.
Here is my ball of Hand Maiden Cashbah Sock in Safari that I just finished winding. I will knit a swatch to see if I can coordinate this colorway and that of Straw to knit Tempest.