Yarn crisis!
This is probably going to sound silly to most people, because it's just about a ball of yarn, but the ball of yarn is attached to a project I've gotten very absorbed in and it's in my nature to worry about these things.
As some of you may know, I recently started on my first pair of socks. What you may not know is that I've re-started them a few times. Now I've gotten a ways along on one sock - four and a half inches - but the ball of yarn has become hopelessly tangled. That's the problem.
You see, I wrapped it into a center-pull ball with the help of the machine at Rosie's, but I don't have much experience with this sort of thing and part of it was too loose. I had to wrap the outside loops that were coming off around the yarn ball, and my working length got twisted with other parts of the ball. I had to periodically untwist it. I didn't realize that the part of the yarn I was working with was also catching on various bits inside. A friend of mine at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival last weekend managed to fix a midsize tangle and suggested that I cut the yarn I was working with and splice it to the other end, which was on the outside (although this was a center-pull ball). I should have listened to her then, but I didn't want to cut the yarn.
This evening I got impatient when pulling more yarn from the ball and created a tangle. I tried to quick-fix that and made it worse. I tried pulling the other end of the yarn, which kept getting caught: I managed to reel some of it around an empty pill bottle, and I even gave in and cut the yarn at what looked like the key chokepoint, but it's too late - the ball is a hopeless tangle now. I could try cutting every problem area, but then I'd have scores of splicing knots in the sock - not something I want. Untangling it would take several hours, maybe days, if it's even possible (I've already spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to sort this out). Cutting out the tangle would not leave me with a usable length of yarn: in fact I can't really cut out the tangle, so to speak, because it's all looped around the ball and seems to have taken up more than half of it.
I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep because I was worried about this ball of yarn (that's just the way I am, I guess). I took another crack at it, but I realize it's hopeless. It's like when I had to drop Calculus in my freshman year of college - I just know that I can't do this and I have to give up before I have a breakdown.[1] It pains me, but I will have to scrap the yarn and all the progress I've made so far. I probably could have prevented this had I done something earlier on.
This is just a project I'm doing for myself, so the only consequence of throwing out this ball of yarn is that I will have to get a new ball. I have a second one I can start on and I'll ask Rosie's to hold a ball from that dyelot for me before they're all gone. If worse comes to worst and they are all gone, well, then I will have to buy two balls of yarn and these first two were just for practice. It's an unfortunate and embarassing failure, but I think even a more experienced knitter who got into this situation[2] would do the same - unless they really enjoy untangling very thin strands of sock yarn. I don't.
I'm sorry if this seems like a stupid thing to go on about, but it was really upsetting me and I just needed to vent. And justify wasting a ball of nice yarn. That is all.
[1] This isn't nearly as bad as the freshman Calculus situation, but it is getting me a lot more worked up than it should.
[2] If they had an attack of the stupid big enough to make them get into this situation in the first place
As some of you may know, I recently started on my first pair of socks. What you may not know is that I've re-started them a few times. Now I've gotten a ways along on one sock - four and a half inches - but the ball of yarn has become hopelessly tangled. That's the problem.
You see, I wrapped it into a center-pull ball with the help of the machine at Rosie's, but I don't have much experience with this sort of thing and part of it was too loose. I had to wrap the outside loops that were coming off around the yarn ball, and my working length got twisted with other parts of the ball. I had to periodically untwist it. I didn't realize that the part of the yarn I was working with was also catching on various bits inside. A friend of mine at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival last weekend managed to fix a midsize tangle and suggested that I cut the yarn I was working with and splice it to the other end, which was on the outside (although this was a center-pull ball). I should have listened to her then, but I didn't want to cut the yarn.
This evening I got impatient when pulling more yarn from the ball and created a tangle. I tried to quick-fix that and made it worse. I tried pulling the other end of the yarn, which kept getting caught: I managed to reel some of it around an empty pill bottle, and I even gave in and cut the yarn at what looked like the key chokepoint, but it's too late - the ball is a hopeless tangle now. I could try cutting every problem area, but then I'd have scores of splicing knots in the sock - not something I want. Untangling it would take several hours, maybe days, if it's even possible (I've already spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to sort this out). Cutting out the tangle would not leave me with a usable length of yarn: in fact I can't really cut out the tangle, so to speak, because it's all looped around the ball and seems to have taken up more than half of it.
I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep because I was worried about this ball of yarn (that's just the way I am, I guess). I took another crack at it, but I realize it's hopeless. It's like when I had to drop Calculus in my freshman year of college - I just know that I can't do this and I have to give up before I have a breakdown.[1] It pains me, but I will have to scrap the yarn and all the progress I've made so far. I probably could have prevented this had I done something earlier on.
This is just a project I'm doing for myself, so the only consequence of throwing out this ball of yarn is that I will have to get a new ball. I have a second one I can start on and I'll ask Rosie's to hold a ball from that dyelot for me before they're all gone. If worse comes to worst and they are all gone, well, then I will have to buy two balls of yarn and these first two were just for practice. It's an unfortunate and embarassing failure, but I think even a more experienced knitter who got into this situation[2] would do the same - unless they really enjoy untangling very thin strands of sock yarn. I don't.
I'm sorry if this seems like a stupid thing to go on about, but it was really upsetting me and I just needed to vent. And justify wasting a ball of nice yarn. That is all.
[1] This isn't nearly as bad as the freshman Calculus situation, but it is getting me a lot more worked up than it should.
[2] If they had an attack of the stupid big enough to make them get into this situation in the first place
