: I put on the first coat of varnish yesterday. I'm using epifane's.
: The directions say to sand with 220 grit after 24 hours and
: re-coat. It's been about 26 hours, and the varnish is dry to the
: touch, but is somewhat tacky still. Do I need to wait until it's
: totaly dry and hard? I've tried sanding with 220 grit, but since
: it's a bit soft yet, it's clogging the paper.

It sounds like you are sanding too hard. You can sand before it is hard. All you need to do is scratch the surface. You are trying to create a surface to which the varnish will adhere, and for that you only need scratch lines. You don't need to take anything off.
JohnK