Monday, June 23, 2008

THE LATEST REDS

I have wound the latest dyed reds on bobbins.  Here they are.

 Reds

The first one I wound off was again a mess.  Since there was not a lot of yardage, the mess didn't last very long. So I decided to try some things.

THINGS I TRIED

1. Jerking and Pulling.

I put my hands in the next skein and pulled and jerked it hard.  I kept moving my hands and jerking and pulling.  I always do that but not with this kind of vengeance. Winding off went fairly well.

The next skein went WITHOUT ONE HITCH!  And the next one as well. This is a world record for me. 

2. Fiddling with Loose Yarns.

The fourth skein had loose yarns dangling all over the place, all, however, properly caught in their figure-of-eight ties. So, in addition to pulling and jerking I stopped and played around with the particular area were there were loose ends This area of the skein also contained a lot of rat's nests. When there seemed to be some improvement I put it on the skein winder and continued working with those ends and trying to free up the yarns caught in the rat's nests. 

3. Beginning and End of Skeins

I then focused my attention on the beginning and end of that particular skein. Usually when I tie the two ends of a skein together, I just encircle the whole width of the skein and tie again.  This time, for at least some of them, I decided to do figure-of-eights with them.  This, I began to think, might be where at least some of the trouble is.

I started one end on the bobbin and I wrapped the other end around one of the wings of the skein winder on the side of the skein where it came from.  I slowly wound onto the bobbin, watching the yarn on the skein winder carefully.  YES!  It got snagged by its opposite end.  Several times. 

So, smarty that I am, I moved that opposite end to the other side of the skein.  IT STILL GOT SNAGGED!   I tried putting it in the middle.  Still no dice.  So I wound slowly, turn by turn.

CONCLUSION

At least I may have figured out one thing that could be a cause---the way I am tying the ends again.   I will not do figure-of-eights with those ends anymore.

Related Post:  Unskeining to Bobbin Problem

© 2008

2 comments:

Leigh said...

Peg, I admire your patience! Still, what's a weaver to do? Good thing you've got your problem solving hat on. :)

Peg in South Carolina said...

Patience doesn't always come easily! But at least I no longer either cry or explode but just get on with it.....most of the time.