Mary, sometimes with ribbon yarn it helps a lot if you can thread the ball of ribbon on a spindle, sideways like a roll of toilet paper. This way, it unfurls straight off the ball instead of vertically. For instance, a cardboard box deep enough to hold the ball sideways without touching the bottom or sides, with maybe a long knitting needle through the middle of the ball and poked through the box sides, as if the box were a toilet paper holder and knitting needle was the thing you actually put in the cardboard part of the toilet paper roll.
Clear as mud?
