Monday, July 14, 2008

The Yarn Barf

For some reason, I was having trouble finding the inside end of my balls of yarn. The outside end was usually sitting there in plain sight, practically waving at me, so I would go ahead and knit with it. What a pain, every time I needed more yarn, I had to pick up the ball and unwind some before I could knit more. If I was careless and tugged without thinking, the ball would bounce from my chair arm and roll across the floor -- usually chased by a cat with evil intent.

I have seen cute little jars with holes in the top and pretty little bags to hold yarn balls, but they sure wouldn't work as intended if the ball had to roll around to release its yarn.

Then, I don't remember were, I read the term "Yarn Barf."

O frabjous day! It wasn't me, it was the way the balls and skeins were constructed!

So now I stuff my index finger right down the yarn's throat and make it cough up the yarn barf.

Sometimes it takes a whole lot more untangling than I would like, but it sure beats having a yarn ball bouncing and rolling and fighting the cats for it.







P.S. The link above is to Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky."

2 comments:

Alison said...

I always just work from the outside of the ball; it's simpler. I've got a Fibersphere now that I picked up at Stitches, kind of a hamster ball in a cage for yarn so it stays put for you rather than rolling away. It also makes for much less yanking on the working end to get it to come.

--AlisonH at spindyeknit.com

Wunx~ said...

Ooh, a new toy. Unfortunately, according to their web site, it's not distributed in Utah yet, but maybe I'll feel daring and order it online one day.