Untangled

Someone on a weaving group asked recently how to keep two yarns from tangling when winding a warp.

Here's my two cents (partly because I can't remember which group).

I prefer to wind from tubes or cones.  I have little posts I can stand the tubes on. 

My tubes are always set up to unwind counter clockwise.  I don't remember why.  I think I determined that 2/8 cotton set up to unwind this way would remove a twist per rotation.  It seemed preferable to me to remove a twist rather than add one, but it's all lost in the mists of time.  Let's just say I always do it this way.

Which ever way it is done, they need to both be winding off in the same direction.  If one winds one way, the other the other direction, the yarn coming off will snag onto the opposite yarn and tangle.  If they are winding off the same direction, they snag less.

The larger the cone or tube, the further apart they need to be.  For these half pound tubes from Brassard, a couple of inches apart seems to be fine.  Larger cones will be set further apart due to the size of the 'balloon' as the yarn whips around the yarn package as it comes off.  The further apart the packages, the less inclined the yarns will be to tangle.

The yarns are run through a dent in the reed laid flat at the bottom of the board.  This keeps the yarn feeding off the package straight, again reducing tangles, but also keep the packages upright, not tipping over and wrapping themselves around my ankles.  This is especially helpful when I'm winding several different coloured stripes - there is enough room below the board for a number of yarn packages.  I simply drop the yarns I'm not using and pick up the ones that are next in the sequence.

During winding I keep a finger in between the two yarns.  Lots of people say they don't bother and it's not a problem.  For me it was, so I do.