Don't you just love it when....

[ArtMama]

You go to roll a skein of yarn into a ball, and the whole skein is a tangled mess? OH the joy!

[tinksmom]

Oh yes I had that happen just the other day and it was a 14 oz skein

[curlysue]

It happens to me now and then!

[Bailey4]

You go to roll a skein of yarn into a ball, and the whole skein is a tangled mess? OH the joy!

 

Generally that's my motivation for finally putting it into a ball.:lol

[FrLopLady]

curious if they were baby pound of love skeins? My friend had a couple of them and they were terrible! She also finally rolled them into balls.

 

Now a story about that... we were traveling with some friends to Kansas and ran into a good snow storm heading into Laramie Wyoming. Took over 2 hours to go the last 40 miles or so. Driving a 1 ton truck with good snow tires..but also pulling a 14 foot trailer. We were all a nervous wreck, but my friend RE ROLLED those balls of yarn to keep herself busy

[tnkycrochetnut]

I try to roll the skein into a ball before its collapses into a tangled mess. Sometimes I get lucky and it does not collapse but lots of time I spend a couple of days untangling the mess. The worst time though was with 2 or 3 skeins of ILTY in navy blue. Every time I would try to wind it into a ball before the skein would collapse, it would collapse anyway. After the first one which took several days to untangle, I would just untangle as much as I could than cut. One collapsed skein made several small balls of yarn. That was about 3 years ago and I have never used ILTY since. Last year I did try some of Hobby Lobby's "I Love This Cotton Yarn" and had no problems with it. In fact I fell in love with it. But I will never use their ILTY again.

[Empress Busy Bee]

I rarely wind mine into balls. Too much work. LOL

[Real Deal]

Here's what I've done with badly tangled skeins. Don't work in your lap ~ put the yarn on a table with a LOT of space to work. Shake the skein to loosen anything that will. Put the yarn on the table and pull strands and sections waaaay out, in all directions. Keep shaking and pulling sections away from the center of each tangle. When you have a good end to start with, hand roll a ball, slowly and carefully passing the ball around and through all the tangle loops. It's slow and boring, but you will end up with yarn you can use. The trick is to keep pulling pieces way out and away, not a couple inches, but a foot or 2.

 

When you look at this tangle that's a yard wide you might think it's even more horrible than it was when you began, but it is much easier to work with this way. You have room to move the ball you are rolling around and through the messed up loops.

[FrLopLady]

I try to roll the skein into a ball before its collapses into a tangled mess. Sometimes I get lucky and it does not collapse but lots of time I spend a couple of days untangling the mess. The worst time though was with 2 or 3 skeins of ILTY in navy blue. Every time I would try to wind it into a ball before the skein would collapse, it would collapse anyway. After the first one which took several days to untangle, I would just untangle as much as I could than cut. One collapsed skein made several small balls of yarn. That was about 3 years ago and I have never used ILTY since. Last year I did try some of Hobby Lobby's "I Love This Cotton Yarn" and had no problems with it. In fact I fell in love with it. But I will never use their ILTY again.

 

And I've never ever had a problem with ILTY and if there was a HL closer to me than 2.5 hours away I would be in SUCH big trouble.

 

I have found that when I am close to the end of the skein if I pull from both ends it kinda untwists itself. Not sure how/why but I don't have problems with the end of skeins even if they collapse. I pull careful though

[lil_mama06]

It's happened to me a time or two.

[texas sunflower]

I dont know why, but I like untangling yarn, it kind of relaxes me???

[Afghaniac]

I dont know why, but I like untangling yarn, it kind of relaxes me???

 

Glad I'm not the only one. Go figger.

[MamawNaNa]

I wind mine after I have a huge mess, have everything piled on 1/2 of my bed, so I sleep beside a mess of yarn.

[ArtMama]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that has had this problem! There have been a few skeins that I have just pulled from the center as I crocheted. It's more comfortable that way. However, I get really peeved when I come across a center tangle mid project. -So, I roll it, beforehand, now.

 

I was so mad the other day at that skein of yarn, that I Twittered about it to Caron yarns. They tweeted back to me offering to fix the problem for me...but by that time I had it rolled up and had moved on. If I lived closer to the store I got it from, I would have took it back. But I'm not going to drive 30-45 minutes (depending on traffic), one way, to exchange a $3 skein of yarn.

 

I guess if a tangled ball of yarn is the worst problem I have going on that day, then I'm doing pretty good. :-)

[pineknott]

Here's what I've done with badly tangled skeins. Don't work in your lap ~ put the yarn on a table with a LOT of space to work. Shake the skein to loosen anything that will. Put the yarn on the table and pull strands and sections waaaay out, in all directions. Keep shaking and pulling sections away from the center of each tangle. When you have a good end to start with, hand roll a ball, slowly and carefully passing the ball around and through all the tangle loops. It's slow and boring, but you will end up with yarn you can use. The trick is to keep pulling pieces way out and away, not a couple inches, but a foot or 2.

 

When you look at this tangle that's a yard wide you might think it's even more horrible than it was when you began, but it is much easier to work with this way. You have room to move the ball you are rolling around and through the messed up loops.

 

about a week ago I did the very same thing you mentioned and it worked well

[pinkroses]

I hate that; or

when you are working and there is a huge knot where it has been cut

this is especially furstating when crochet with thread to make

like a bed spread . ugh . lol

[LI Roe]

Funny you should mention that. Last night I tried to find the starting piece inside the skein, yep, you guessed it, a  large blob came tumbling out. And to top it off, it was a variegated in dark brown, dark green, beige. So I spent most of the evening untangling and got it into a nice ball. Great therapy since as I would tug, it would tangle (think it was doing it on purpose). But I won and it is now a nicely rolled ball which I then decided I didn't want to use for the project. But it is ready for the next project.

 

This happens occasionally to me and I will not let the yarn win. I think I take after my late mom, who used to be able to untangle the finest of chains (jewelry) without any problem. I think she was nudging me on.

 

You are not the only one, it happens to all of us.

 

LI Roe