What am I doing wrong that when I pull from the center of my center pull yarns, I get a big huge heaping mess each and every time?
I don’t mean the yarn barf that comes out in the initial pull. I mean as I go along, the yarn knots up and tangles and becomes one gigantic mess. Any techniques on keeping my center pulls neat and easier to work with?
You’re doing nothing wrong and it’s not worth getting frustrated over. I get messes too, but just undo the tangles, so have patience and don’t just yank on the yarn. You can take the label off and work from the outside, though, put your yarn in a bag or box to keep it from rolling around.
From my use of center pull skeins this should not be happening. Some of the low-end pull skeins (notably Red Heart) tell you to take the outside tail out at one end and then to look for the pull end from the other end of the skein. Lots of other brands don’t have this information, but I think there is something to it.
Some skeins have both ends tucked in a little in the ends somewhere. Some have the outside end tucked in/or loose, and the pull end you have to “dive” for. I think you should always locate the outside thread, and make sure it is not tucked in anywhere, before you go looking for the pull part. If you find that outside end tucked in anywhere at one end, choose the other end to go “diving” for the pull end.
If you can’t associate the outside tail with either end you just have to guess which end to look in for the center pull. I try one end and if I can’t find anything fairly easily I try the other end. Center pulls are not always deep inside (if not, they are usually right at the end, even sticking out a bit) but if they are, I try to go to the very center of things and pull something there. I do get a bit of excess sometimes with that first pull, but I have never had recurring issues all through the skein (if this is an unintentional lie, it is at least not so common, because I can’t remember it). :lol:
If you get that outside end somehow caught in the skein you can have troubles further along though, I’m not talking about if that happens.
That’s called yarn barf and it just happens sometimes. I just use that first and keep going. If there is enough of it I actually roll it into a center pull ball myself and stick it back inside OR center pull ball the whole thing. So much nicer to deal with. There are instructions under knitting tips in the video section.