(Photo: Ben Hosking)
Knitters are often frustrated to find their yarn tangled. Some people, however, really enjoy the task of untangling yarn. It's a soothing, meditative experience. In fact, so many people like to untangle yarn that they buy balls of yarn that have been intentionally tangled. The Wall Street Journal reports:
Daphne Basnet of Melbourne, Australia, once paid about $50 on eBay for a 25-pound box of snarled yarn, simply for the pleasure of untangling it. “I was so happy, I can’t tell you,” recalls the 58-year-old of her purchase, a mess of about 120 knotted balls. […]
Devoted detanglers typically offer to take on the projects for the cost of shipping. Competition for the most maddening messes can be fierce. Some members check the group every day.
“People will jump in and say, ‘Send it to me!’ ” says Mary Enright, 56, a detangler from Sioux Falls, S.D.
Many say their work untangling yarn is strangely relaxing, an escape from their worries and a way to create order out of chaos. Some also enjoy unwinding iPod headphones cords and straightening Christmas-tree lights.
-via Marginal Revolution