I just wanted to take a few minutes and tell you about a world-wide group of volunteers that may one day save your life. Or your toddler’s life. Or your dog’s life. Or at least your sanity.

Meet the members of Knot A Problem, a ravelry group that volunteers to untangle your yarn and mail it back to you. The bigger the mess your yarn has gotten into, the happier they seem to be. Yes really. They refer to these messes as “projects” and “extra Christmas presents”. Here is a selection of some volunteers’ most recent work:

Want to see more “tangle porn”? Head over to the Tangle Porn thread!

Now I have untangled yarn. I’ve probably untangled miles of it. I worked on the pink stuff at the top in fact. For me its a duty and a fact of my yarn-filled life. But its not a project. In fact, for me, its time away from my projects. But for some its relaxing and fun and very satisfying work.

I personally know two members of Knot A Problem and when I asked them about the appeal of untangling yarn they both started talking about math. Yarn Wrangler Number One has looked into the mathematics of how yarn tangles and what lengths of yarn can be stored loosely with each other without tangling. Yarn Wrangler Number Two sees a yarn mess as a math problem that has to be solved step by step until she arrives at a solution. Now I like math. I like math a lot and the next time I have to untangle a whole skein of lace weight yarn I’ll try to think of it as a math problem. But I’ll probably still hate it.

Aren’t us non-Yarn Wranglers lucky that we have people like this? Yes. Yes we are. So here is how it works:

How to Find A Yarn Wrangler

From the moderator, Spirals:

1. A person with a tangle can either: a) Create a post (preferably with a picture of said tangle) and request anyone to volunteer to detangle it. b) Go to the Detanglers by Location page, locate, and Private Message a Detangler directly with a request to detangle yarn.
2. If you create a post, please PM the person you choose, and then post in the thread that you have found someone to detangle your yarn.
3. A person with a tangle is responsible for the cost of shipping to and from a detangler (unless of course a meet up is coordinated).
4. Detanglers often like small tokens of appreciation for their volunteer work. A person with a tangle can inquire with a detangler what he/she might like – but is no way obligated to provide anything but shipping costs.

Do look over that list by location. You might find someone you know. I did.

How to Become a Volunteer Yarn Wrangler

You make a post in the group to this thread. They will need:

your one, primary location, please include State and/or Country and/or Region.

How to Deal With the Yarn Mess Right In Front Of You

So maybe you’re not ready to offer your services to the world. Maybe you just want to tackle the misbehaving yarn in your stash.

• Knot A Problem has assembled some tips to help.
• Allfreecrochet.com has a short photo tutorial on how to untangle.
• Yarnobsession.com has a guide with some practical tips and lots of advice on keeping it zen.

And when all that fails (like after 5 minutes right?) you just go to Knot A Problem and beg for help. Then a Yarn Wrangler rides in and saves your life, sanity, yarn. How awesome is that?

Which is why the volunteers of Knot A Problem get filed under Stuff Jenn Likes.