I recently started a granny square pattern from Marly Bird under her "one ball wonders" tag - who doesn't love a project that takes only a single ball of yarn, amirite? Not only is it a single ball of yarn an easily justifiable purchase, but I assumed there'd be minimal end tucking - hooray!
What I didn't pay attention to at the time was that I'd be taking this single ball of yarn and "separating" it - that is, cutting it into pieces. Whoops?
Separating yarn is (somehow?) something I'd never heard of before, and when I finally sat down with my yarn and hook I was momentarily thrown. "Separate yarn? Wait, why does she have multiple colored balls of yarn pictured for a 'one ball wonder' pattern?" A quick google search answered my questions.
I guess the good news is that I actually find the separating and winding of yarn into balls somewhat soothing and a great mindless activity to do while you're watching TV or listening to a podcast. Plus, now that I'm aware of the concept I see that it gives you a built-in color palette, which is great for someone like me who can sometimes have decision paralysis when it comes to choosing colors for a new project.