How to keep a hank from tangling?

[wolfeyez76]

I bought a beautiful hank of yarn to make a scarf off, and realized pretty quickly that you can't just find an end and crochet while it it in that form. So, I tried my best to go from hank to ball but it turned into this...http://wolfeyez.blogspot.com/2005/08/what-mess.html (scroll down - it's the bottom picture). Suggestions?

[mimi_mia]

I don't know how to help you with the yarn but your dogs are soooooo cute :heart I love flat faces, I have a boston terrier

[sunshine1977]

Oh man - Don't you just hate it when that happens??? I had the same thing happen to me last week with a full skein of Fisherman's wool (400+yds) that I had wound into a hank in preparation for dying...I decided I wanted the hank to be longer, so I tried to unwind and rewind it and ended up with a huge mess! It took me several tries, but I finally got it untangled...I kept trying to do it at night when I was tired, but I finally tried tackling it in the morning when I wasn't tired, and it went much better and I finally got it done! I had tried to rewind directly from the tangled mess to another longer hank, but that ended up not working at all, and I finally had to cut the yarn and start a ball. it was much easier to maneuver the ball in and out of the tangled mess to get it undone. It just took lots of patience and determination! My DH told me a couple of times to just chunk it, but I wasn't about to throw away that much wool!

 

It looks like your yarn is some sort of eyelash, so I am sure that makes trying to get it untangled that much more difficult, but just work on it a little at a time and try not to pull too hard and hopefully you can get it undone! Good Luck!!

 

Laurie:hook

[losingmymind2]

ok, I'll try to explain, but I'm not really good at this myself. You gently put the hank on an umbrella swift if you have one. If you don't, the backs of two chairs, or the outstretched arms of some poor fool, er, accomodating soul will do. This is where the ball winder comes in handy, cause you can wind the ball from the swift to the ball winder, but take it from me...SLOWLY is the best way to go here. Good Luck.

 

Kathy

[Brie]

I've had the same thing happen to me. I had this giant hank of copper-colored chenille yarn that I was going to wind into a ball. As I was putting it on the back of the chair I was using, I dropped it and it turned into a huge mess. That was last November, and I still haven't gotten it untangled, but I can't bring myself to throw it away, either.

[Aggie May]

Because these yarns are so silky, they are diabolical to use, even when they come in a nice neat ball. :think

It takes dedication to unravel such a tangle but sometimes it is just one little snag which turns into a birds-nest. I guess fishermen could relate to this problem.

There is no easy way to do it, except as someone suggested, laying it carefully inside a bowl or tin which has straight sides. Make layers and then keep a good eye on it as you work it off.

I really dont fancy your chances of still being sane after you finish crocheting it as I would prefer to (dare I use the K word here?) knit it using another fine yarn to give it a bit of body. Sometimes these yarns were just made as an add on to create a bit of texture, rather than to make a complete item on their own.

If you really want to crochet it, once it is untangled, you can use another yarn to make the scarf in DCs and work into the back loop only on alternate rows. This creates a ridge where you can later crochet a single row of your fancy yarn. Gives you a great look without the agony of trying to find your stitches to crochet into.

I do this with the Eyelash type yarn and it fools people because you can see it on one side of your work but not on the other.

Good luck. :hug

Have fun.

Colleen

[MarvieN]

I place the hanks around the back of my office chair, that way I can swivel the chair as I wind. I'd rather have a swift, but till I get one, the chair trick works out. I've also done it having someone hold the hank for me, then we switched when her arms got tired (we did several hanks that night)

[wolfeyez76]

Thanks for all the help and suggestions. I will try it next time. The yarn I have is actually 3 differnt yarns - one eyelash, one mohair, and one metallic. It was a "kit" so to speak that I bought for $36 in Cimarron New Mexico. No way am I giving up on it! I wound both ends into balls to shuttle through the mess, but it being 3 yarns, it's difficult. Sometimes I just want to scream! It will look pretty when done, though, whenever that may be. The picture my camera took just doesn't do the yarn justice..