Jig tying rant # 7

[radtexan]

A few weeks ago AW posted a great tip for storing skeins of chenille,and was even kind enough to send me a couple of them

The one tip I didnt get is how to unroll the skeins with out having a tangled WEB !!! Ended up having to cut the chenille every 5-10 yards to get it unwound.And still took a very long time to do. What am I doing wrong ???

[PawPaw Gene]

I'm not sure but aren't you suppose to pull the yarn from the inside end and not unwind it from the outside.

"gene"

[Fatman]

Unrolling skeins of anything is a pain in the butt LOL I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Fatman

[fish_4_all]

The best thing top remember about the skeins that chenille comes on is that you can not tie a true knot in them unless it is by taking the end and doing so. I have unraveled skeins of yarn and chenille before and as long as I didn't untie anything right away by removing a knot with the end of the chenille I was fine. It is a pain in the arse but can be done if you never pull hard enough to make anything too tight to simply pull the loops out and slowly unravel it.

Any tangle, don't pull on it, find the loops and remove them to untangle it. If you find the end, try not to ever use the end the end to get out a tangle because once you do you will have a lot more true knots. Only untangle with the actual end when you have to and is the last resort. Get a crochet hook to get tighter tangles out and to pull the chenille lose to pull out the loops to untangle it.

Can't think of anything else but will post it if I do.

If kinda like this, take a rope, put the ends together and tie it in knots and loops and everything else you can think of. Then untangle it and never let the ends come apart. Then do it again and untangle just a little of it after you let the ends come apart and pull and end through a tangle. It sounds weird but it makes a huge difference.

[brimreaper]

just a little trick I learned after spending 2 hours trying to untangle the first skein of chennille that I bought. The skeins usually come in a series of loops that are kind of loosely knoted to keep them from uncoiling in shipping. I undo this loose knot and the individual loops can be seen then. I place the bunch of loops over/around the back of a ladder back chair. The chair back keeps the loops from getting tangled while you unrole the mess and put it on a card or something the way it should have been packaged to begin with. Just my take on it. try it.....it works for me.........brim

[AWMiller]

I built me a wooden jig that I can put on the floor. This jig has two "hands" sticking up that I open up the skein and put on. I then get one end of the chenille to unraveling and then I start wrapping it around one of those holders. If I run into a spot where the chenille gets twisted up, I just worm that holder through and keep going. Tedious... but it pays off for me in the long run cause my chenille is now very easy to get to and take off just as much as I need.