I think it came out pretty well! Color order aside... I decided that it was best to ball it in the direction that it seemed easiest to get the yarn from the hank, which turned out to be opposite to the direction I wanted it. I could have then reballed it in the other direction. I didn't because I figured that since I won't be using the entire skein, it would be better to take the yarn from the outside and leave a nice ball afterwards. Of course, this is outdated thinking, because I
could have just reballed the remnants -- d'oh! I am considering cutting, reballing, and spit splicing, but probably won't, since cutting a working thread on purpose seems
wrong.
Unfortunately, the two colors I need -- white and green -- are the ones with only two repeats, not three, and they are towards the middle of the skein. So the join will be scarce on white (at the tip of the last skein) and the green (just at the start of the new one). Normal faulting! -- removal of stratigraphy. Or perhaps strike-slip, smearing it out. In any case, we are not to the sides yet, so it should not matter that much.
Reasons to ball skeins before starting -- better color planning. Though if I had flipped the first skein, I would have ended up with a double section of pink/black, no matter which direction I did the second. Reasons not to skein -- cannot return extra skeins.