The Misti Cotton for my next project came as big twisted pretzels of yarn. Up until now, all my yarns came as centre-pull skeins - easy - tear off the label, find the end and knit. Hmmm. Maybe ask the nice yarn store lady for tricks to get it ready to knit? Nah, how hard can it be!
After hours untangling snarled messes while rolling the first two balls, I googled for advice. Found a tutorial at knitting.about.com - How to Handle a Hank. Boy do I feel dumb! The author, S.E. White, warns "A hank is basically a big loop .... twisted into a yarn pretzel ... You can’t knit with it the way it is. Trust me. You’ll make a huge mess and lose a good deal of sanity trying to make it right." Wow. She is so right. With kitchen chairs keeping the yarn loops taut, winding the last two hanks went more smoothly. Which is a huge understatement - 15 minutes each instead of a few hours each!
So I've learned a couple things. I've learned how to wind a hank into a ball. And I've learned that next time, just go ahead and ask the dumb question. I learned these lessons the hard way; I won't forget them anytime soon. But at least my Mom had a really good laugh when I told her.
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