Remember back in August when I said I was having trouble with the white rayon chenille yarn? I said it twisted uncontrollably, and that it had been wound on the cone backwards. I planned to wind it into balls before I wove with it again to get it wound forward.
Well, I had a custom weaving order for a solid white rayon chenille scarf. So I got out my yarn swift and my ball winder, and started winding the white chenille a ball. I was looking in the other direction, and in just a moment, all of a sudden the ball flew off the winder. Huh? I’d never had that happen before.
So I started winding another ball. The second ball didn’t pop off the winder, but it wouldn’t wind well, and the yarn broke early on.
What’s up with that?!
When the yarn broke on the second ball, the cone of yarn fell over. I picked it up, went to start a third ball, and suddenly had a “aha” moment.
Most of the cones of yarn I buy have a very definite top and bottom, just like a well-behaved cone ought to. This yarn came on a straight plastic cylinder, not a cone shape at all. Because this was unusual, it had never occurred to me that there would be a difference in taking the yarn off if the cone was upside down — that would not have been possible with a cone-shaped base. But it sure did make a huge difference, one that’s immediately apparent. Just look at the difference in less than a foot of yarn, one pulled off the top of the cone, one pulled off the bottom.
The strand on the bottom in the photo, taken off the bottom of the cone, already has lots of twists in it. The top strand, taken from the top of the cone looks pretty normal.
Once I figured this out, weaving with this yarn was just fine. I got that custom order solid white rayon chenille scarf woven and off to my customer in no time.
There’s a mistake I won’t make again. There are plenty of new ones, I’m sure. 😉
Your turn: have you had any aha moments lately?
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