Totally Disappointed

Earlier this week I realized that in all the hubbub re: Sadie I didn't have any socks on the needles!  I had finished the Traffic Socks, and didn't have my usual "pay attention to the pattern" socks going either.  Something had to be done!

The first thing was to start a new pair of Traffic Socks.  Here you see the cuff of a plain pair of socks made with Tofutsies Limited Edition purchased at last year's Stitches Midwest, and Addi short dpns, also purchased in the great needle acquisition flurry that was SM07.

And today I was getting ready to cast on a pay-attention-to-the-pattern pair out of the Th'red Head Sharday Gwen gave me last year.  However, winding the skein into a ball presented more than one change of heart.

First, although when still twisted in its label it looked fine, the skein was a bit of a tangled mess.  My first clue was when neither of the black ties had any ends involved.  Also, there was a bunch of random fuzz in it. (???)  And sure enough, I had to wind and untangle at the same time for a bit.  But eventually it was untangled enough that I could put it on the ball-winder and I got pretty far.

As I wound and the tencel shone in the light and I could better see the color gradations I thought this can not be made into socks, it must be made into a shawl or something that I will wear and it will be seen.  I pondered the possibilities...

And then I found the other end, but there was still a lot of yarn on the swift!  It looked broken, so I continued on.  For about a yard.  And then I found the other end again.  I started again, and found another end.  Some ends looked like a fresh cut, some looked like old cuts; I can't make heads or tails of it.

This is what I was left with:

One large ball, two small balls, two itsy balls, and a small pile of random lengths and fuzz.

What the heck?

Now I don't want to make a shawl with it because dealing with ends in a shawl is particularly unsavory.  In fact, I don't want to make anything with it because I'm mad at it.  Blergh.