Yarn Barf

It's back to quirkiness and time to step away again from the cuteness for a while.  But as you see I'm someone who slips from one to the other without much effort so anticipate this back and forth to be my new normal.

A dramatization of me in the midst of my startitist frenzy

Yarn barf.  I'm willing to bet you hadn't thought of putting those two words together, had you?  It just so happens yarn barf can be a reoccurring pain for those of us who use yarns that come in a skein instead of a hank.  (No pun intended regarding the current Noro virus, well maybe a little pun.)

Skeins of yarn wound by the manufacturer

These are hanks which need to be wound into balls 

If you look closely at the picture on the right you'll see the start on the millet yellow skein at the centre right of the photo.  Its start can easily be seen coming from the centre of the skein onto the violet skein to the left.  Easy to find, right!  Sure but what about the remaining 40 skeins, find the start in them?  Not so readily identifiable are they?

Acrylic yarns are generally sold in skeins which are coils of worsted yarn wound into balls by the manufacturer.  These coils are spun allowing  knitters to pull the yarn either from the outside or inside of the skein.  Pulling the yarn from the outside causes the always-rolling skein.  However, most of us dig into the inside of the skein and, sometimes if we're lucky, locate the inside start of the skein to use. Knitting with yarn coming from the inside of the ball eliminates the dancing ball/cat chasing part of the enterprise and is universally preferred by yarn users.

Now, back to yarn barf.  When one sticks fingers into the centre of the skein there is about a 50-50 chance of locating the start of the skein (at least for me).  So half the time I end up with a wad of yarn coming out of the centre of the skein with a certain amount of velocity because I'm tugging on it pretty hard, the effect of which is yarn barf.  I am about to show you photographs of yarn barf; but I assure you if you're eating right now while you read this, you will be fine.

A yarn barf of some size.

Or this

An even bigger yarn barf , BTW ignore the spools of support yarn for this discussion. They too were in the centre of the skein.

To avoid yarn barf one can take a couple of approaches.  The first should be to carefully read instructions that may be on the band placed around the skein (like the Lang JaWoll Sport labelled one shown above).   I have found such instructions on some skeins but like almost every other special opening instructions given on a product, I ignore it and dive right in, at times with disastrous results.  Another way to avoid yarn barf is to stretch the centre opening and gently use a crochet hook to pull on one of the inside threads at a time.  If that thread is not free, move on to another one until you find one that is easy to tug on.  This usually only minimizes the yarn barf, but even that is great step forward.

In the end however, most of us fail at these techniques and have to deal with the barf.  The best thing to do is butterfly the barf using a technique shown in this video.  You would avoid the snipping of the yarn part and merely tie off the excess yarn and push it back into the centre of the skein if it fits, otherwise it sits next to the skein.  (You know, you don't want to mix your regular yarn with your barf yarn, am I right!)  You'll then knit from the butterfly until your project catches up with the yarn and voila you're yarn barf free.

I know, I know this isn't exactly the most terrible of knitting catastrophes much less any other catastrophe; but yarn barf can be problematic because it is such a yarny mess.  And it always happens at a time when anticipation and excitement to start are so high.  Oh the trials and tribulations, worries and woes of the average knitter.