tackling tangles

Yesterday while I was sewing beads on a project, due to unforeseen circumstances, I ended up 5 beads short! I didn't want to remove what I had done because I really liked the blue beads I was using so my choices were either to head to the store and buy more OR use some I knew I already had although they were connected, literally, to another project. I was in a hurry so I decided to use what I had but the only way to remove the beads without ruining the other project was to unwind the entire spool of string to get to the other end. It seemed simple enough so I began to unroll the string being very careful as I unwound it, yard by yard, setting it in layers as I pulled it off to keep it from getting tangled. Finally I reached the end, removed the 5 beads I needed and finished the project. So far so good. But my counter was now covered in a pile of blue string and beads which I knew I needed to tackle sooner than later, knowing full well that sooner would be better, so I began rewinding the cotton string back on the spool. It started out pretty well and I was quite pleased but before long the monotonous task began to slow down as the string started to somehow wrap around itself. I was now stopping every few winds to pull out knots or weave the spool through loops to untangle it. Unfortunately my quick, easy fix ended up taking about as long as it would have taken to drive to the store and buy new beads but after a little extra time and a lot of patience it is now wound back on the spool just as it had been. My only concern now is that my knitting project might be 5 beads short!