What does "ball of yarn" mean?

Answer 1

The phrase "the whole ball of yarn" means that that's the completion of a long process. It goes back to the early days, when people sewed a lot more than they do now, and they had to wind their own balls of yarn. Depending on how long the yarn was, it could be a time consuming job for two people. So lots of times, women would get together and chat while winding the ball of yarn, and when they reached the end of their ball of yarn, their gossip session had to be over because there were lots of other chores to do in those days.
So thus the phrase "the whole ball of yarn" came to mean the ending of something.

Answer 2

It's usually 1 scane of yarn, that has been rolled into a ball, years ago yarn did not come where you can pull it like you can today you use to have to have someone hold it on the hands while you rolled it into a ball.

Answer 3

It could mean "the whole thing", like "the whole enchilada". Alternatively, a singing group (the New Lost City Ramblers, in Ireland, or maybe a parady of same) used "wind your ball of yarn", spoken to a woman, to mean to have sex. In the song, "Little Ball of Yarn", the perpitrator pays the price: he contracts gonorrhea, then is arrested nine months later, and sentenced to the penitentiary, all for "winding up that little ball of yarn."

Answer 4

Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibers, thus ball of yarn is this length rolled up.

Answer 5

Ball of wool

Answer 6

Means something is complex and/or drawn out.

Answer 7

its a ball made of yarn. (DUH)