Tuesday, October 6, 2009

A BAD SILK SKEIN

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

I was running out of the 2/20 silk on a cone.  Since I have more dye sampling to do, I got out one of my skeins to wind another cone.  I discovered, much to my horror, that the skein contained many cut threads.

Here is what happened when I put the yarn on the skein winder and started winding a cone. 

Skein with many cut ends

No, this is not a bad skein from Treenway Silks.  It is a skein from Treenway but the fault is entirely mine.

A year or two ago, I had received a package of silk from Treenway.  They are very frugal with their packaging and so package the skeins very tightly.  I was careless.  As I cut the package open, I cut into the skein.

I did not throw the skein out.  I figured it was still usable.  On the other hand, I was very slow to wind a cone of it.  So slow that I had forgotten all about it.

Before I started winding, I undid the ties and found the beginning and end of the skein.  I started winding from one of those.  The winding went well until the yarn stopped coming.  I had reached a broken end. 

If you look carefully at the top of the skein in the photo, you can see a heavier golden yellow piece of yarn hanging down from the skein.  This is 5/2 pearl cotton which I tied to the opposite end.  Doing this would keep me from losing it as I wound from the first end.  That 5/2 pearl cotton attached to the end would be my safety net—a place to start again.  I always do this, because I never know what problems are going to happen.

Now I do not know whether to proceed with that end or to take one of those many loose broken ends you see hanging down to the floor.  I know those loose ends will not unwind smoothly.  I will probably have to make a fair number  of knots.  But the good news is that I am not dyeing this yarn for weaving, only for sampling, so knots don’t matter.

Related Post:   
Loose End
Disappointment
That Badly Snarled Skein of Yarn


A Bad Silk Skein“ was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on October 6, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

 

5 comments:

Dorothy said...

I know about that problem when opening a package of yarn, in my case it was sock yarn, so less valuable, but awfully sad when the packet was open and the damage revealed. I try to remember to open packets carefully now. Glad you can still use the skein.

Delighted Hands said...

Yes, I have wrestled a similar skein. It is fussy but can be done if you are patient!

Peg in South Carolina said...

Dorothy and Delighted Hands, it is a relief to know that others have done this. Sometimes I feel like such a klutz! Thank you for sharing.

Shani said...

I have done similar, but not so dramatically
ah well...

Best wishes
Shani

Peg in South Carolina said...

Shani, it is certainly becoming clear that this is not an unusual event.....sigh........