Recycled Sari Silk Yarn

I've started knitting with the recycled sari silk yarn. Last night I wound one skein into a ball...and it took over an hour, due to some nasty tangles. This stuff is not easy to work with. The odor is not great, although not as bad as I've heard it is. The smell is mildly reminiscent of vomit, but it's not too bad...probably just enough so to keep my from trying to knit and eat at the same time. I'll probably wash the bag once its finished, but didn't want to wash the yarn first for fear that could cause more tangles.

Below is the little sample I knit today to test the gauge. It's in garter stitch, which I'd never used before. Really easy -- just keep knitting, no purling. At first I thought I preferred purling to knitting when I was doing the knitting wrong (see textured sweater below for the effect of my misguided method), but now that I'm knitting properly, it's much more fun than purling! Anyway, I think the garter stitch wouldn't be very pretty on a really smooth yarn, but for the sari silk yarn it seems great.