Yarn Barf

 

   This week I sorted through my yarn stash looking for thinner weight yarns that I could use with another thin weight yarn in my 10 stitch blanket. One of the yarns I found was called "Starry Night". The colour of the yarn varies from twilight blue to the almost black of the night sky. Twined with the yarn is a little silver glitter hence the name. It's a beautiful yarn that I thought would make a nice scarf. However, I have a lot of scarves and  thought it might add some bling to my blanket.

   With some help from my mother, I found an nice grey yarn to pair with it, The grey gives more thickness and highlights the colour picking up on the silver glitter.

   I thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and wind the hank of yarn into a ball so it could be used. I untwisted the hank. My Mom held it while I started to wind the ball. When Mom had to go do something, I put the hank of the back of a chair and continued to wind. Then I got interrupted. 

  Instead of leaving the partly wound hank on the chair back, I took it off and laid it on the floor. I came back and tried to pick it up. In the process I got it all tangled. My beautiful hank of yarn was now a pile of yarn barf. 

   Yarn barf is actually a tangle of yarn pulled from the center of a ball or skein of yarn. It takes some work to untangle it, but it can be done. In my case 2/3 of the hank was tangled. To complicate things further the yarn is a thin yarn and is also is all those shades of dark blue making it very hard to see.

   I've been spending part of every day untangling it as best I can. It would probably be easier if I just  cut it, but I don't want to do that unless I have no other choice. I already made two cuts when the yarn tangled into a knot that I could not undo.

   Untangling the yarn has been frustrating, but it also a bit addicting. There are times when the yarn is so tight that I just want to quit. Then there are times when I can pull it loose and it's a little easier to untangle. Bit by bit my ball is growing.

   I've learned my lesson. The next time I need to wind a hank, I'll use my swift. It holds the hank so the ball can be wound. If I had waited until I got home to use the swift, I'd have a nice ball right now and would be working on the blanket instead of untangling a mess.

   Speaking of which, I think I'll work on it a little more........