These great (but, you know, horrible) yarn horror stories were all submitted by knitters and crocheters from the Ravelry.com community. Brace yourself for some yarn horrors!
I was a beginner knitter and didn’t know the difference between a ball, a skein and a hank. I bought a beautiful hank of mohair double stranded with copper shiny bits, and didn’t have the slightest clue how to wind it. I spent a fortune on this yarn. So I bought a ball winder and clamped it to the table, opened the hank and laid it on the floor, fed it to the winder and cranked. In 2 minutes I had an unresolvable tangled mess of knots :-( I tried for an hour to make sense of it and ended up throwing it away. Next time I bought a hank, I googled and learned the proper way to unwind and reball with a winder…. what a gorgeous waste… -k2p2socks
I’d just started using natural fibers and had purchased about $40 dollars worth of Patons Classic Merino on sale at Michaels. I left it in my fiance’s closet because I was moving. A month later, mice moved into his apartment and ate everything and pooped on everything else, including a bunch of books (and my organic chemistry notes! They ate my organic chemistry notes!) and nested in the wool and cotton. None of it was salvageable, it had all been nibbled to fluff, pooped, and peed on. -Androgyn141
I walk on into the living room to see a thin line of laceweight about 10 feet long looked good so far. That didn’t last long. After that point it was wrapped around every chair and table leg of the dining room set, 6 chairs and table for a total of 28 legs to be wrapped with skinny green yarn. Back to the living room where it’s wrapped around the coffee table base, under the child’s rocker base, under the loveseat and around the end leg. Now on back to the dining room again and around the highchair legs all four thank you. Must be complete. Moving along to the kitchen and around the front fold of the step stool at the end of the island. Then we go through the morning room……..around and under all three bird cages legs and the casters on the bottom of the legs. Finally we reach the family room... It’s not wrapped around anything in the family room other than the still tied handles of my knitting bag. But the remainder of the ball( I use that term VERY loosely) is EVERYWHERE! A little clump here and another there and some more over here...and finally what is the only semblance of the once neatly wound center pull cake is on the coffee table. -Hobobird
In 1992 I was eagerly awaiting a shipment of Muench Touch me from the manufacturer in Italy.... It was brought out to the plane ready for packing, when they were fueling the 747. The hose disconnected,and sprayed the entire shipment….ok a little spray would not have been bad , but the boxes, 40+ of them were SOAKED in Jet Fuel!
the really shocking part was they still loaded the shipment into the airplane!!! with passengers!!!! one spark would have made that whole airplane explode!
Well then the shipment came….what a mess! there was not one skein that survived, the plastic bags inside were melting from the fuel, the skeins were all soaked in some liquified gel of plastic & jet fuel. I had to call the Loacal Firehouse and ask them how to dispose of the shipment properly…..
$87,000 worth of yarn, thrown in the garbage…(and properly disposed of)
I cried for at least a week, and then had to tell every customer the story, over and over agian and apologize that their yarn order was delayed… -myyarn
I was given a skein of recycled sari silk yarn as a special present by a well meaning family member. I’m not a huge fan, but I wanted to make something out of it so that she’d know I appreciated her thinking of me. I started knitting a small purse out of it, but realized I didn’t have enough after almost finishing. Bought something to carry along with it (15.00). Still not enough and it looked really hideous. Spent an entire day unraveling and removing the carry along yarn by standing on the top of a chair because the extra height helped with the unraveling. Couldn’t save the other yarn. Bought two skeins of All Hemp 6 in black (20.00) to see if I could make an interesting slip stitch woven type pattern. Still not enough of silk and the hemp bleeds black. Decided to order more sari silk online (30.00) to see if I could alternate with the other skein. It didn’t match at all and it really smells horrible. I have it quarantined in a plastic bag away from the stash. So so far I have spent 65.00 on a project I really don’t have any desire to make and still don’t have enough of anything to make with it. -pergola
