I had a pretty full spindle of the Fern Colored BFL, and so I thought it was time to wind it up into a ball. I was originally thinking I would spin another spindle full and ply the 2 singles together. I do not have a nostepinne but I had seen a Youtube Video on how you can wind a ball straight off the spindle with a ball winder. I had done this with my first attempt, and it went pretty well. The Fern BFL was another story!!!
I started to wind the ball and about 20 yards into it I got the yarn all snagged up. I had a loose end at the bottom of the cop and it had tangled with the yarn attached to the winder. UGH!!!!! I am a very patient person. I thought, I can work this out.... just go slow, and work the tangle out.
Well, after about 15 minutes, it was clear that I was not going to work this snag out. At this point, I had a complete Brain Fart. I thought if I slide the cop off the spindle, I can start winding from inside the ball. In my defense of this completely stupid idea, I was thinking of what I had read in the book "High Whorl", where Priscilla recommended that you could ply directly off a nostepinne (using the yarn from inside the ball and from the outside of the ball). First of all, I found out the Spindle shaft is not a nostepinne and second the you cannot slide the cop off my Spindle.
My attempt to slide my cop off the shaft caused the most God Awful mess of twisted yarn I have ever seen. The outer part of the cop slide off the shaft and the tightly wound center of the cop stayed at the top of the shaft by the whorl. Not to mention that as the yarn slide off, some of it got hooked onto the the groove that my shaft has at the end of the shaft (I have a Schacht Hi low spindle) I was certain that I was going to have to cut this off the spindle and start over. I should have taken a picture, but I was having a nervous break down at the time, and the thought that this will somehow work out just did not enter my brain at that time.
To the rescue: My daughter arrived home from Soccer practice at this time and thankfully jumped in to help me. Having 2 hands to keep the single from plying back on itself as I tried to work out the snarls was incredibly helpful!! It took a while but we were able to save the yarn!! I got it wound onto the ball winder and left it there for about 2 days because, I have to say, I was terrified to move it. Last night I overcame my fear of the ball of Fern Colored BFL single and tried to ply it. Let's just say that went a whole lot better!
Oh, what we learn from first hand experience that just cannot be taught in a book!
