70"

Thanks to several people who went out of their way to bring me their extra yarn this Saturday! And thanks to William, who brought me a copy of "A Big Ball of String," a childrens book by Marion Holland, which I had never seen before.

There's a great story about a giant string (and yarn) ball contest in Robert McCloskey's "Homer Price", which I re-read last year.

The GYB is maintaining it's sphericality well so far, but I'm worried: other really big balls of string  I've seen on the internet are all lopsided; I don't know if it's due to unequal wrapping as the thing gets too heavy to turn easily, or the force of gravity.

Poolside consulatation with Rod, engineer extrordinaire, raised the possibility that the yarn ball flab I'm trying to avoid is due to crushing; according to Rod, when steel cable is wound on drums the inner layers can wrinkle up under compression from the outer layers, behaving like a fluid unless the tension is graduated carefully from inside to outside of the coil.

Hmmm.

67"

67" after today's work. New 60-foot cloth tape measure!