Tips for untangling

Awhile back I was gifted some yarn.  Well, sort of.  I was given the yarn because the owner of said yarn got sick and tired of trying to untangle it after its accident with the ball winder.  I however find untangling kind of relaxing, and so thought I would put together a few tips for an enjoyable experience.

• The first thing you should do is see if your tangle separates easily into smaller tangles.  Like this:

 You can see the main chunk of tangle, a smaller loop, a middle tangle, and the ball I'm winding onto.  I had actually been working on it for a little while in this picture.  But still, makes it so it doesn't look so bad.

• If you have any bits that aren't really tangled (like the loop of yarn in the lower left of my picture), put something heavy on them so they don't run away from you.  The last thing you want to do is make more tangles!

• Don't pass the yarn through itself unless you REALLY have to.  A lot of yarn tangles are just loops caught on each other, not knots... but when you pass the end through you can make knots.

• Don't be afraid to start working from the other end, once you find it.

Go from whichever end is easiest!  If you end up with two little balls like I did... just wind the smaller one onto the larger once.  And that is the story of how I got 437 yards of free baby alpaca lace weight yarn.  :)