Recently, I opened my MASSIVE book of ’to do’ crochet projects and pulled out a pattern I’ve been itching to try since it first came out! It’s Playin’ Hooky Designs: Strata Beanie.
Here is what mine looks like halfway finished:
The first thing you notice when you look at that hat is that it’s done using no less than 5 skeins of yarn. That is A LOT of yarn to attach to one project. One of the reasons I kept it on the back burner was simply because I’m not a huge fan of YARN KNOTS!!
However, thanks to Pinterest (I love that place!!) I stumbled on a really amazing technique that I tweaked a bit in order to tame my skeins so I didn’t end up with a single knot or a huge headache.
The tools you will need are cheap and readily available and you probably have them lying around the house right now!
In order to wrangle your yarn you will need:
- One large sized paper clip
- One canvas shopping bag
- A chair or something to hang your canvas bag from so it’s suspended and not lying on the ground
- All of your yarn
That’s it!
To get started, fold your paper clip so it looks like this:
Next, hang your canvas bag onto the back of your chair and place the paper clip onto one of the handles. Then, begin your project, being sure to thread each new color through the TOP of one side of your paper clip. Once you have each of your colors threaded it should look like this:
Quick Tip: Make sure when you are adding your skeins into your canvas bag you put them in so that the center pull is feeding up toward your paper clip!
Now for the fun part. The key to making this all work (and keeping your yarn untangled) is in how you crochet. Begin your project, working in the round, and when you get to the color change:
*Change as indicated, pull your loop out about an inch and then–turn your project one complete revolution in the opposite direction that you just crocheted. Reinsert your hook, pull your loop tight, and complete your next round. Repeat from * around.
It’s just that simple. If you follow those directions for each color change your yarn should remain tangle free and easy to work with!
As you can see here, I’m on round 18, my 5 skeins of yarn are totally tangle free, and I haven’t had to fool with rearranging skeins once this entire project!
Brilliant idea, I usually pitch several little, ok maybe big fits, when trying to wrangle all the yarn skeins, Can’t wait to give this a try.