knot in middle of brand new skein...regular occurrence?

[bowtie]

I get those all the time, probably because I buy cheap yarn. But I've also gotten where the yarn broke and someone tied it back together! In one skein they did it at least 3 times. I would have complained but I'd thrown away the label.

[mamamoonie]

knots, no.  but in the middle of a skein of fat chenille I found what looked like a burn/melt???  several strands burnt/melted together in one spot. weird!

[lauriemk]

I am working with some Lion brand microspun right now, and the first skein was full of tangles!  I spent forever trying to untangle it, but then just moved to another skein.  I should contact the company about it, it was really terrible.

[alwaysinmyroom]

...talking about knotted yarns--I got some ribbon type yarn--it had knots and it kept twisting all over the place.  I was told by my experienced crochet friend that I was suppose to rewind the whole thing into a ball first, checking for knots and "loosening" the yarn--seems like a lot of work especially if you have a lot of yarn--I am all for trying to hide the knots but it is one of those things that I will always know where ALL of the knots are even if no one else will even notice!  Thanks for sharing a common complaint! Maybe if we all complain to the companies they will know that we need better quality control! BTW, my new favorite yarn is the microspun by LionBrand--it is so soft but a pain to work with! Any tips?

[zatanna]

Ok, so this is sort of thread necromancy, but since the topic was already in existence...

Should I be worried about this big whole knot in the middle of the yarn? I just continued on. The knot ended up in the middle of three dc so you can't really SEE it, but I am paranoid that it could perhaps unravel. Do those knots stay pretty well in your experience, or should I just undo what I did and start with a non-knotted part?

Thanks!

[Yarn or Fabric]

I have had skeins that have knot after knot after knot every few yards... it is really really REALLY annoying but sadly it is part of the deal.  That yarn technically should go in to mill ends but they don't - they just keep it going..

I have also had yarn that all of a sudden has another color worked in to the ply for no reason at all and since it is all together you can't even get that color splotch out...

And I have had yarn that all of a sudden gets massively fat and nasty for a long period of time - that you just sadly have to cut out...



I personally only start a new yarn where it can not be seen - on the edges/sides of a project if at all possible.  It is not worth that little bit of yardage loss to have it in the middle...

[zatanna]

Thanks for the response, CraftyDeb! Yup, my little knot ball was also accompanied by weird orange fibers wrapped around it! And it's a linen color so it's not exactly complimentary, so I yoinked those out. I am making matching blankets in different sizes for a baby and a cat, so I think the cat is getting that one since it's on the edge and I am going to start a new one for the baby. I just don't want to chance it getting mucked up...this way I can just blame it on the cat if it unravels. 

[javastain]

Ya, I hate those weird anomalies... I think these things are just the manufacturers way of getting you that whole 6 ounces of yarn in one skein!!! The random colors are to indicate to you that a splice is coming up, and I do think that they are meant to be cut out and re-spliced the way you want them to be. I don't usually leave the knots in when they come up. I have found that some are not really secure. They seem to be either cut super short or not a secure tie (like not even a basic square not!). Anyway, check out http://www.purlwise.com/splicing_yarn/ for a nice little splicing tute!

[Yarn or Fabric]

Oh no - the color change was not an act of knotting in that particular skein - I was crocheting at night - and in front of the tv and not really paying attention and the next morning I noticed that a MASSIVE area was a different color.... It was heartbreaking... It was not just a little spot - there was no knot - just a massive area with a different color in it... It was weird to say the least.  The show still went on - the item didn't need to be photographed from the back so I was told to just keep on going instead of waiting for more yarn to arrive...

[zatanna]

Thanks for the info, Javastain. Splicing looks pretty cool...I might actually like the splice yarn example better than the regular yarn!  I think in the future I will just give up and slash 'em out. Especially since I was just making the granny square blanket o' DOOM, it's not that hard to reattach.

I am quickly learning that some shortcuts in crochet are more like shortcuts to sadness later on when your stuff is all wack and falling apart.