Yarn Tales Tuesday

Saving the Yarn

The conclusion

  I'd like to begin the conclusion of the Saving the Yarn series with a thank-you to everybody who offered me emotional support, encouragement, and helpful ideas during the untangling process. I truthfully expected at least a few comments telling me I'm nuts and I should throw it out, but not one of you thought that way! If you share a love of yarn, you probably understand how the thought of cutting or throwing out "perfectly good yarn" can make you cringe.


  This really has been an emotional event. Not life-changing, "I can't handle this stress" kind of emotions, just lots of different emotions. It began with anger and disbelief: "Ugh...I can't believe how tangled this yarn is!", and lead to a high confidence that I could untangle it. Then frustration, confidence again, a small amount of depression, some disappointment, confidence once more, a return of frustration, and finally, success! All with lots of coffee and heavy metal in between. And here is the end result of my work:

  I was lucky enough to untangle four even-sized balls, a little under 1 oz (28 g), plus two larger balls closer to 1-1/2 oz (42.5 g). This strayed from my original plan of cutting it into evenly-sized sections, but the two larger balls give me more options to work with. If I decide to use the smaller parts in some granny squares, the longer lengths my come in handy for borders or bigger blocks of color. If not, I suppose I can always cut them, too. I'm over the anxiety of cutting the yarn, and I have no problem with hacking it up now.

  There's not much left to explain from here...I was down to the end of the skein and the last of my coffee. Even my stereo was cranking out the perfect song from Lamb of God (video will play), which is always "my song" for the end of work, the day, or the end of anything...It's just my "it's done" song, which gave this moment a strange feeling of finality as it started to play. After working through the last knot, I was left with a simple pile of yarn that could easily be rolled up, and finished just as my playlist ended.

  And that's it! I wasn't able to save the yarn in one piece as I would have liked, but it stayed out of the garbage. The pieces I'm left with can be worked into something, somehow...Maybe something more interesting than some granny squares!


  Want to know a secret? I absolutely hate doing stranded color work. Not because I don't have the skills, or because I don't like the effect...It's one-hundred percent because I don't want to cut my yarn "for no reason"! I know, the color work is the reason, but do you understand what I mean? I just can't bring myself to cut yarn unless I'm binding off.

  Well, since this had to be chopped up to be saved, I guess that gives me an excuse to do some color work, doesn't it? It's strange and a bit funny to me how this whole process has been somewhat therapeutic. One of my worst (yarn) fears happened, I went through a range of emotions, overcame the anxiety and grief, and it's time to move on to bigger, better things. I think hacking up this skein will lead me to do the work I avoid, and learn to see that cutting up yarn isn't always ruining it.


  I feel optimistic about designing a stranded pattern now. Perhaps I'll even use a second color strand, just to face my fears, and cut up more yarn. It's time to get another cup of coffee, find a new playlist, and see what I can create. There's just one problem: I still hate weaving in ends!

The end!

Happy Crocheting!

Saving the Yarn: The culprits

Saving the Yarn: The next step

Saving the Yarn: Getting through it (and a little rant)