What a Tangled Yarn to Wind

You've just found that amazing yarn you just had to have and now you are wanting to get started on the perfect project!  You've grabbed your swift and ball winder only to come to a jarring halt when you find that perfect yarn is so horribly tangled.  I have a possible solution to having to make those annoying cuts in your fiber.

Find an end of the yarn and tie a knot.  Grab your longest needle from your add-your-cable set.  (I like the addi-click sets.)  Place the knot into the opening on the end - where you would connect the cable.  Hold the yarn along the needle and begin winding closer to the tip.

You can use the needle tip to guide your way through the tangles.  Keep winding onto the needle until you've worked your way through the tangled section. 

Remove the knot from the hole where the cable attaches. 

Slide the wound yarn toward this end of the needle but NOT off the needle.  You are trying to get the yarn to the area of the needle that decreases.  This will allow the yarn to come from the center, closest to the needle, and be wound more easily.  Pull out the yarn and use the knot to fix to the ball winder.  Begin winding the yarn first from the needle and then from the swift.  No need to cut the fiber because you are using the needle as a go-between holder as you work through the tangles. 

Another suggestion - to avoid fiber rubs and burns on your fingers as you tension the winding yarn, first feed an end through the finger holes of your scissors then fix it onto the ball winder.  Hold the scissors as you turn the swift and before you know it, you'll be knitting your project.