Granny squares - an update!

So I finally completed a few granny squares over the weekend. I have to say I'm pretty happy with myself, as I learned how to do so entirely through youtube training videos. So far, I have three completed. It takes around 30-40 minutes to do one, if I use one color. I used white yarn as my testing yarn and when I do my blanket I will have four colors: white (maybe), heather, salmon and blueish-green.

The only problem I am running into now is with winding the hank into a ball: I don't know if there is a technical term for this, but when I tried winding (by hand, not with a swift) I find that the fibers of one piece of yarn split and another piece of yarn is woven through this, forcing me to rip the split yarn partially to free the second piece. Also by doing this created several large knots. I think I spent two hours untangling this, finally giving up and leaving a scraggly mess of yarn behind. Kind of disappointing, especially since I have three hanks to go! Have any of you ever dealt with this issue before? I used shepherd's wool merino type yarn.

Here's a quick drawing I did of the issue to clarify:

Anyway, here is a picture of my first granny square! So excited that I made it this far. Only 200 to go :)



PS- I have started putting up smaller pictures to accommodate smaller computer screens, as I recently viewed the website in a 14 inch laptop and it was awfully hard to navigate. Hope this is better!

PPS - daily photos now updated on flickr.