Question for Knitters or Crocheters or anyone who works with Ribbon Yarn?

I have never worked with ribbon yarn before, and I’m knitting a purse with it, but the more I unwind the ball of yarn the more I find the ribbon twisted. Is this common with these types of yarn? Its a pain trying to unravel it! Any tips or suggestion? Thanks

3 Comments

hairbender November 24th, 2009 at 6:58 pm

This is very common, and it requires a full article (which I have published in a magazine before) of why this happens, and how to work with this yarn.

You are the one creating the twists in the yarn. When taking yarn off the ball, you have to make sure that the ball rotates. If you pull the yarn off the ball sideways, that is what creates the twist. This happens with all yarn — but how can you tell when the yarn is already twisted?? Try unrolling the yarn from the ball the same way you do with toilet paper.

There is going to be another problem when knitting, because the way you knit will also twist the ribbon. That is the effect that yarn produces… it is twisted in various ways, and you are NOT supposed to get a nice even fabric from it. That’s just how it is.

renegade_knitter November 24th, 2009 at 7:37 pm

It is VERY common. There are several solutions. One is to not care and just use the yarn as twisted. The other is to keep the yarn is a drawstring or zipper bag, and every so often to close up the bag and let the yarn dangle so it untwists. A friend uses a wrist carrier (like from the Victorian age) so the yarn is very close and easy to turn and flatten as she goes.

If you mean that the yarn is tangling, this is also common. It helps to wind the ball carefully and put it into a zipper or drawstring bag that you keep closed except for a little bit that the yarn can come out of. Then it doesn’t unravel as much and if it does it’s caught in the bag. I do find that I have to re-wind balls of ribbon yarn at least once as they get smaller and loosen.