When you do miniature punchneedle work, you'll often work with individual strands of thicker threads or yarns. Separating the strands of ordinary cotton embroidery floss (which has six strands plied together) can be exceptionally frustrating – until you learn the easy trick for doing this with ease. This will come as great news to those punchneedle enthusiasts who have resorted to using their teeth as a “third hand” to keep the floss from becoming hopelessly tangled. What we all seem to do naturally, without even thinking, is to hold one or more strands in one hand and all the rest with the other hand, and then pull the two hands apart from one another. As basic as this seems, the end result is almost inevitably a messy tangle of threads.
The technique for easy separating is counterintuitive – it will feel “weird.” But it works! Here’s what you can do to get tangle-free separated strands.
- Cut a piece of floss about 3-4 feet long (the floss can really be any length, but 3-4 feet is a good starting point).
- Hold the floss near one end with your dominant hand, and tap the end, so that the ends of the strands pop apart; this will make it easier to grab just one strand out of the batch of six.
- Now, grab one of the individual strands and hold it with your non-dominant hand (if you're right handed, hold the single strand with the fingers of your left hand).
- Hold the full six strands of floss firmly with your right hand. Here's the key: you will not be moving your right hand AT ALL — it stays perfectly still.
- Now, use your left hand to pull the single strand away from the other five strands. Your left hand will be moving, and your right hand will be holding still, grasping the six strands firmly.
What happens is this: as you pull the single strand out, the remaining strands will start scrunching up near your right hand. That's okay. As soon as the single strand is completely removed, the scrunched up strands will fall back to place. No tangling! You should now have a nice, smooth, untangled single strand, and five remaining strands, ready to be further separated.
Having trouble envisioning how to do this? Think of a box of dried, uncooked spaghetti laying on your counter. Picture pulling out only one lonely "stick" of spaghetti. You grab the single spaghetti and pull with your left hand, while your right hand holds the box still. That's the kind of motion you're aiming for! This method works really well, but only for a single strand. If you try to remove two strands at the same time, you're definitely in the danger zone. It's easier to remove one strand, and then go back to remove another strand, and then lay the two strands side by side before you thread them into your punchneedle.
Wool threads (such as Lorikeet, which has nine strands plied together) can be separated in the same way, with one small modification. Follow Steps 1 through 5 above. As you're pulling out a single strand of wool, you'll get to the point where you feel resistance — the strand of wool suddenly doesn't pull. At this point, stop (if you don't stop pulling, you'll likely break the strand of wool). Now, "unscrunch" the wool that's gathered in the hand that's grasping all nine strands of wool. After you push the scrunched section of wool down to the end of the cut piece of thread, you can resume pulling on the single strand, and it will pull out very easily. Voila!
So there you have it – the simple way to separate strands. This method really is easy to do, and will soon become a reliable way of dealing with your floss and wool threads, without any tangling.
