How do you wash thrift store or second hand yarn? I have recently come into possession of quite a bit of yarn that I'd like to clean before working with it. Some of it is dusty and some of it is a little bit musty. It's good quality stuff, so it's definitely worth a bit of hassle, I'm just a little unsure what to do. I don't want to spend days, weeks, or even months trying to de-tangle a massive yarn mess! (Some of it is on cones, which makes it even more difficult.) There has to be a way to clean it!
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Oooooh hm. I am wracking my brain for ideas about washing that yarn but got nothing. Maybe if you wound it into smaller balls and then washed so they would dry more completely... but then you just have a bunch of small yarn segments so that's not great. ..
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your pattern ideas!
i recently made a poncho for my almost-3-year-old. She calls it her poncho moncho. Super cute!
ReplyDeleteI've unraveled thrift store sweaters for yarn, and I washed it by skeining it in large, loose skeins. Then I just hung it to drip-dry and rewound it. I suppose you could do that?
ReplyDeleteIf your yarn is not in skeins, then loosely wrap it around the back of a chair or lampshade. Tie it in sections about every 10 inches with waste yarn. Then lay those skeins in your bath in a soft rinse product. I use Euclan. After a little soak,hang them up to dry. Done!
ReplyDeleteI would second the skein idea. If you're really worried about unwinding make extra figure eight ties around the skein. If you're worried about felting only wash it in cold water. You really only need hot water for removing lanolin. Hope this helps, good luck :D.
ReplyDeleteYou can also make a niddy-noddy from PVC pipe (we seem to have some in the garage all the time) and unwind the cones onto that. It'll make a large skein, then you can gently work some wool wash or baby shampoo or similar into the yarn in a sink and rinse.
ReplyDeleteYou don't want to try to wash a ball of yarn, or it's likely the center will never get clean - like washing balled up socks :)