Yarngate? I’m sure you probably have some idea of what this could be. You probably even have your own experience of a yarngate you have come across (if you are a knitter).

Before I start, I would like to say that I don’t normally use this blog as a soap-box and I’m also not pointing fingers at anyone or anything (apart from maybe the human psyche, and our crazy behaviour). This is a commentary on society as a knitter…and also, as a shop-assistant.

Yarngate

I love my job. Especially when I get to work with the yarn (restacking, sorting, pricing, counting…). However, there is one thing that NOBODY who has anything to do with yarn, string or any fibrous thing enjoys.

That’s right. Tangled yarn.

Last week at work I was sorting through the basket of fancy yarns, when I realised it was a yarn grave-yard. There were assorted yarns – 400 g balls of Aran, Debbie Bliss Cashmerino (which the shop hasn’t stocked in the months that I’ve worked there), the Rico CanCan that was meant to be in the basket, some unknown yarns and a variety of torn-off ball-bands. I picked them out, placed them in a Trolley of Doom, and continued.

Now, multiply all the balls of yarn that I found by each other (they were all tangled), with ripped ball-bands, and me with the responsibility of trying to restore them to a sellable state.

It took me two hours last week and two hours today. I spent a long time last week tidying the yarn remaining on the shop floor, making sure all the balls had substitute bands, and left work satisfied thinking “that’s going to keep it all tidy for at least a few days”. How wrong I was.

I entered the shop the next morning, and even though my trolley of doom had been wheeled into the warehouse for sorting, there was yarn, ripped ball-bands and tangles everywhere. I think the people who enter the shop go slightly mad the minute they get into the yarn section. They pick it up, rip the band off, twist it around something else and throw it into a massive pile. Why, why, why? Would you do that to your own yarn?

I just don’t understand why this happens. Forget that I work there and I’m the poor soul who has to detangle it. I wouldn’t do that. I love yarn too much. This seems sacrilege to me. Even before I got the job, if I saw a ball of yarn with a slightly loose end or damage in some way, I handled it extra carefully, with the care and love it deserves.

This is a plea to you, readers. Please treat tangled yarn with compassion, and untangled yarn with respect. It takes the smallest stimulation to cause a ball of yarn to get angry and spring into knots. We must treat them well.

Anyway, I must get on. I have lots going on at the moment, work is very busy and the Customisable Gadget Case is progressing! How are you?

Much love,

Corrie xx