“How oft have your thoughts been like a ravelled skeyn of silk, so entangled and perplexed … but the longer you thought the more you were puzzled ….”
--from Rev. John Flavel’s A Righteous Man’s Refuge (1682)1
Language is an ever-evolving thing. And while there are good reasons some cultures have institutes dedicated to safeguarding the integrity of their language, a living language is arguably never more alive than when it is adapting to new ideas. Yet, yet. There are instances where I find myself longing for some clarity, for some official académie for knitters to render the language of knitting “comprehensible by all” as Cardinal Richelieu would have said.
For instance, what, exactly, is a skein of yarn? There is a dictionary definition2 but as you may have noticed, among crafty types, this word is applied to a rather surprising number of yarn-shaped things—so much so that it has made the word not much more specific than saying “some wound yarn”. If there are more than forty words in Finnish for snow (an internet-derived “fact” that I cannot confirm), I think knitters can surely do better than apply “skein” to nearly every3 form a length of yarn can take. “Hank” and “ball” get tossed about with similar abandon but perhaps not to such a wide range of yarn put-up types. Even if any given knitter is consistent in their usage of these words, if you poll a random set of unrelated knitters, you are quickly going to find out how very individual the terminology is. This isn’t even a case of semantic shift as far as I can tell. It’s just straight up chaos--each knitter assigning their own definition using whatever logic appeals most to them.4
As amusing as I once found this quirk, it seemed less cute while I was working on a new post about yarn twist (which is still in the works partly because of a terminology issue but mostly because I don’t know when it’s time to call a thing done). In my research for that piece, the inconsistencies I had often observed but never bothered myself about became a bit of a problem because how do you describe a complicated topic to a diverse knitting audience (even one that consists of only two people) if the terms you are using do not mean the same things to everyone?
I thought that this charming infographic from an Interweave Knits article had the potential to bring us all into line, but alas, no. That train may have left the station, as any Google search on the topic will reveal. And since there are no knitting Immortals that hand down edicts from on high (for which rogue knitters5 like me, and maybe you, can be grateful), it does mean that those issues are never definitively resolved.
My solution to the problem may be the same as everyone else’s, as in, I’m just going to use names that make sense to me. The difference is that I’m leaving behind the skein, hank, and ball for good and going on a gastronomic tour of sorts.
We already have cakes and donuts on the table so why not turn to bakeries of the world for a little inspo? I may be a low-carb convert but I think I have found a way to indulge my former love of baked goods and resolve my yarn put-up confusion all in one go. Let’s see what’s on the menu!
(Scroll through the gallery for additional items not on the menu.)
I can already hear the din of the mob6 disagreeing vehemently with my chosen baked (& deep-fried) delights so feel free to choose your own analogous confections or maybe even cured meats or cheeses (both of which I thought had potential but my familiarity with the delis of the world is even more limited than my knowledge of bakeries of the world) or you can call a skein a skein as you know it to be because at this point, no one can rightly contradict you.
Footnotes:
[1] After skimming the original passage, I’m thinking he meant that fervent prayer would help untangle an actual skein of silk as well as any complex difficulties you might find yourself grappling with. He seems to be speaking from experience when he refers to having “found the right end to wind up”. Personally, I’ve always found that counting down from ten and laser-sharp focus work best
[2] Let’s go with the venerable Oxford English Dictionary, which bills itself as “The definitive record of the English language”, to which I would add, “give or take a few centuries”, but nonetheless, here it is:
skein (noun)
1. a. A quantity of thread or yarn, wound to a certain length upon a reel, and usually put up in a kind of loose knot.
[3] This might be an exaggeration on my part but I feel like I’ve heard “skein” applied to virtually every type of yarn put-up by at least one person at some point during my knitting lifetime
[4] This may also be a bit of an exaggeration. However, the absolute certainty that so many knitters seem to possess regarding this matter in contrast to the absolute lack of consensus is a bit of a head-scratcher
[5] Not in the sense of being a scoundrel or a rampaging elephant. And although my knitting can be described as erratic at times, I mainly mean that I choose to knit my own way and to think about knitting in my own way. I also like to go off pattern. (Another topic for another post for another day)
[6] The purely hypothetical mob for which I write. Who even reads a blog anymore?