Yesterday evening I had a little time before dinner while my husband was de-stressing from work on the XBox so I wandered into the spare bedroom where I keep my cutting table and a lot of fabric and yarn. I didn't emerge for a few hours. Needless to say, dinner was late...and quickly prepared. My husband was still engrossed in his game (no, he's not addicted to it, now is he?). So what was I doing in my room of fabric and yarn? I wound three hanks into balls. Yes, it took me that long and I still have one more left. This is yarn my mother-in-law bought me in New Zealand and while it's a lovely dark green mohair/merino blend (quite a nice surprise, coming from her), she failed to understand the concept of dye lots and I have three in one lot and one in another. Oh well. The hanks are 100 grams each, so maybe I have enough of the one dye lot for a sweater or something.
I don't know whether the hanks were already a mess or whether they got that way from my less than careful storage. They were still in the tissue-filled gift bag I received them in. I think at the time I received them, in the mail as a Christmas or birthday present, I wasn't in a knitting phase so I didn't pay much attention to it. But last night I felt the urge to spin it into balls. I have a ball winder, so that makes the job very easy. The hard part is dealing with the hank. I don't have one of those umbrella-looking gizmos (haven't a clue what they're called) because it's very rare that I buy hanks of yarn. But the ball winder was a necessity to produce balls with a center pull for my (unused) knitting machine. I did my best to sort out the hanks, but they had gotten twisted and confused as to which yarn belonged on which side of the hank. This is why I spent hours untangling. I'm a master at untangling. I have patience and a strong need to do the job perfectly. Did I mention I'm a Virgo? If it weren't for the cats, the hours would have been pure Zen. Strange but true - I was lost in the work. And the cats? MEOW! I WANT THE STRING! Need I explain it any further? I tried booting them out but our tuxedo kitty scratched at the door and wailed. I would periodically open the door and squirt him with water, but that only silenced him for a few minutes. Then he was back. The girl kitty gave up and decided it was more fun to harass tuxedo-boy.
So I have one more hank left. More Zen tonight I think. I think I will sneak in the room while the cats are eating, but I don't think it will fool them.
I think that the word you're looking for is swift.
ReplyDeleteMy seventh grade art teacher used to tell us about how in her culture it used ot be no woman could get married until she had sat down with her future mother in law and been handed an extremely tangled ball of yarn. She then had to untangle it and could not swear, complain, or cut the yarn the whole time. I always think of that as I'm untangling.