Friday, November 02, 2007

Tangles

If you read the comments to yesterday's post, you may have noticed that Susan and Steve (who both know me IRL) commented on my 'tangled yarn' issues. It's like I look at yarn, and it knots up. Everyone is familiar with yarn vomit -- when you pull on the center and a big hunk of yarn comes out. Well, this is pretty much an everyday occurance for me, especially if I've wound the yarn myself! And too often, there's a big old knot in the center.

Tangles

On the left we have the yarn Steve referred to -- J. Knits Superwash Me Light Sock Yarn in Los Angeles (lavender). It's being knit up into a pair of Serpentine Mitts. On the right, is Scout's Swag 100% Superwash Merino in Illini (orange and blue). It's being knit into a pair of plain socks. As I'm sure you can see, both balls of yarn have vomited. They're both still usable, but I do spend a fair amount of time untying knots! (Kim, where are you when I need you???)

Here's the yarn for the Honeybee Stole (which is by Anne, not for Anne) -- 1800 yards of Wooly Wonka Laceweight Northern Lights. Notice there's one big yarn cake, one tiny yarn cake, and one cigar-shaped wad.

Wooly Wonka Northern Lights

I had just begun to wind it last night, when the yarn broke. That's where the little cake came from. I slowly and carefully continued to wind. I was almost done, and thinking that I wasn't sure my ball winder could handle it all when, suddenly, the remaining yarn dropped off the swift! And of course, it didn't drop straight -- it dropped in a wad! That's where the yarn cigar came from -- I wound by hand from the other end, and worked for over two hours until I got down to one terrible knot. I cut it out, along with about two feet of yarn. I think there will be enough yarn in the big cake for the stole -- yay! no ends to weave in -- but this is pretty typical for me.

Just so you'll know that my knitting's not a complete disaster, here's one finished Serpentine Mitt.

Serpentine Mitt #1

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOVE the mitts - so pretty! I get tons and tons and tons of compliments on my Fetchings. :)

The vomit-y yarn would have me wanting to off myself. Bleh.

Chris said...

My goodness! You do have winding woes, don't you?! I have the occasional mishap, but nothing regular. The worst was when I was winding a skein of Euroflax too fast, and it went arcing off the ballwinder, unwinding from both ends as it flew and flew... Just glad it was before I had cats, or I would never have untangled it!

Anonymous said...

wow. I feel like I may have added to your yarn curse by mentioning it. I'll light a candle for you and your yarn.

I LOVE the mitts! Where did you get the pattern?

Amysatx said...

The Serpentine Mitts are gorgeous! I'm casting on for some Maine Morning Mitts today. I don't want to be without my mitts the two days out of the year it gets cold! Kid n Ewe is next weekend and I was just remembering how much fun we had last year..so much has changed!!! It's just not going to be the same without you (and everyone else who has moved away)...sigh...

Michelle said...

Mitt 1 looks great. The color is very pretty.

Dang, those crazy yarns were like coffee for me this morning. One look and now I'm wide awake. Yikes. Well, if you want to mail them to me, my mum and I can try to gently coax the knots out.

Courtney said...

I have quite a few cases of the tangles myself.

Kim said...

I hope you have some great friends at a knitting group who can help you with your tangled woes ;-) Maybe some real cake to help the process along?

Love the mitts!