3 balls, 6 strands, chaos

LuLu, I'm so proud of myself: my organization problem (itty-bitty next to yours) has been how to keep the lines clear when I'm knitting 2 pieces with 3 strands each, and trying to do it off 3 balls of yarn. And here's what I've learned:

It's counterintuitive, but set the balls on the sofa beside you with the CENTER-pulls DOWN. That way, the strands that are unwinding from the outside, going round and round, don't wrap around the center-pull strand.

Next to the logistics problems you've been solving, this is really trival. But I can't tell you how excited I was to figure this out, after trying to unravel some gosh-awful messes. Two balls/4 strands isn't so bad, but most rows of the R&J coat are knitted with 3 strands of yarn, and the messes grow geometrically. (Yes, of course I could use 6 balls of yarn. But this solution wins because, as designers and mathematicians know, simpler is always more elegant.)