There's got to be a better way

I just don't know what it is yet.  I tried to set up for a lot of intarsia this weekend, and had poor poor results.  

The project involved 9 intarsia stripes running vertically up a garment.  I wanted to use a cotton yarn for summer 

fun.  What a disaster that was.  I thought the balls would collapse (the slickness called for rubber bands) and I knew I didn't want short ends (all that cotton!) or bobs.

I first thought I could make little isolation chambers in old sour cream containers.  I heated a screwdriver, and punched holes in the tops of the containers, and each little ball of  yarn had its own little garage.

Still I made spaghetti.   The garages idea isn't BAD, just not great for 9 balls of yarn.  

 I tried to knit separate strips-and I really didn't like the results.  Yarndex swears it's 100% cotton, but I would swear there's some rayon in there somewhere.

I searched the internet and Rav, but I didn't find any good innovations to stop the tangles.  Lions and tigers and bears, "Oh, just cut lengths,"  "I use bobbins,"  and nothing I hadn't thought of before.  Ptttbbbttt!

So after all that, I got out the sea silk.  I'm moving in another direction now.