I love yarn.  I’m a yarn collector.  One of my favorite things to do is wind yarn.  Ever since I got a swift and a ballwinder, I’ve enjoyed the sensory experience of winding yarn – feeling the yarn slide through my fingers, watching the colors change, watching the spinning swift and cranking the ballwinder, finding a rhythm as it curls my yarn up into a satisfyingly hefty little cake.  I like to sit at my kitchen table and wind up my skeins, pondering what they will become – a cowl?  A baby sweater?  A pair of socks?

Usually winding is calming, a quiet, thoughtful process.  But some days … some days, winding is an unmitigated disaster.

My ballwinder is probably just like the one most of you have – a little plastic contraption from Japan – and it requires some … attention.  Sometimes, frankly all too often, the yarn gets caught up in the gears of the ballwinder and requires untangling.  Usually, it’s simple.  Usually, I catch it pretty fast and can tug out a strand of yarn and fix everything up and keep winding.  Not today.  Today, I spent about twenty minutes looking like this …

Today I had to actually cut the yarn in order to untangle it.  Sigh.  Must remember to keep a closer eye on that ballwinder.  Or maybe invest in this.