Wound up

I had the best of intentions. If I'm going to make a pair of socks for myself with this yarn, I will need to do the unthinkable and knit a gauge swatch. First, though, I need to convert it from skein form into a ball.

And that's where I made the first mistake.

After a half hour of trying to untangle it and making an unholy mess of knots, I put it aside and tried with another skein. This one was more cooperative, at least at first, but before long the knots began to appear as I wound this by hand. In other words, I was doing this without a ball winder.

The folly of my efforts devoured the late afternoon and early evening. Eventually I had to make a cut in the yarn because I didn't have much wound and might literally spend hours trying to finish it if I didn't make a judicious snip. I should also point out that with the skein draped over my knees, the winding ball to my right, and the other end of what I was working with to my left, I was in no position to get up. I needed to turn a light on, but I didn't dare get up and create more tangles. If the phone were to ring, I wasn't going to get it.

After cutting the yarn, the next bit went easier, although it would still periodically bunch up and require me to be careful in pulling the strand through and not make more knots. As I got close to the end of winding 492 yards of sock yarn, the knots came back in full force. There still more to be wound to finish this skein, but I couldn't do it any more tonight.

In total, I spent about three and a half hours winding. One skein is mostly wound. Another is a disaster zone. You could say that I lost my desire for doing any knitting tonight.