Who of you has ever knitted something and thought after some time, I'm not into it or the beloved piece just doesn't fit anymore? I make the assumption that almost every knitter has already been in this situation.
And then what? Maybe you would like to knit something new from the yarn you've used. But then you put off unraveling the old piece - it's not so much fun after all.
Finally, you get the energy to find all the sewn in ends and unravel everything again.
When all the yarn is wound up again, you jump right back into the action and start with the new project idea. But after a short time you realize, somehow your knitting doesn't look quite as nice as usual. What could be the reason for that?
It's simple: your recycled yarn has already gone through an entire creation cycle and has therefore adapted to the shape of its previous garment state. That is, the yarn has been knitted, washed, blocked and worn! That's quite a lot, if you think about it, and the yarn looks accordingly.
Due to this deformation, your knitting can no longer look as beautiful as it might otherwise with new or not so crinkly yarn. How do we get rid of this deformation from the yarn? The solution is quite simple: Washing!
I, too, felt the same way with a design of my own. It was the first sample garment, which in the meantime no longer fit whatsoever and had to be updated long ago. I put it off for ages, because I thought the washing effort was much too high and complicated.
But then I decided to take a closer look at it and found out that it doesn't look that bad after all. It just takes a little patience!
To help you lose your reluctance to unravel to start the, I'll call it 'yarn rejuvenation' process, I thought I'd take you along on this journey and show you how I went from my yarn weed salad back to a perfectly fresh skein.
Let's go back to the beginning and start with a finished knitted piece.
First of all, you'll need to unpick your sewn in ends. This may take a little time and require a bit of patience on your part, depending on how well they are sewn.
Once you've done that, it's on to unraveling and winding. I used my yarn swift for this, which made the whole process a lot easier. If you don't have a swift, you can also use the back of a chair for example.
Attach your yarn end to the yarn swift or your chair so you can refer back to it later and start winding now. And off you go!
Gradually wind your yarn back into loops until you reach the end of a skein.
Now you can't just take off the loop of yarn, otherwise everything would get tangled.
Therefore, it is super important that you secure your loop before! I did this with cotton yarn scraps I had on hand in 4-5 places. First of all, start with your yarn end of the loop. Tie your scrap yarn around where your end is. Then tie your loop end around the scrap yarn end so that it can't come loose. Do the same with the beginning of your loop that you attached before winding.
Then enclose your loop in 2-3 more places with scrap yarn and the skein is ready.
When you have finished unraveling all of your knitting, it's time to wash it. Put enough warm water in a bathtub | sink | container and add a dash of wool detergent.
And off into the water with the yarn loops! Give them enough time to soak completely with water. I waited 1 hour here. It doesn't hurt the yarn if you carefully lift it out of the water bath every now and then to check the current state.
Before you take the loops out completely, you can very carefully pull and stretch them a bit to get all the distortions out. Be sure to take into account the nature of your yarn and that this should be done very gently.
Now prepare two towels, one to lay your wet loops on and the second to spread out on top.
Lift the first loop out of the water and squeeze it out little by little from top to bottom to get as much water out as possible. Be careful not to slide down the yarn loop or it could felt. Just go in stages from top to bottom.
Then it's off to the prepared towel. Repeat the process with all the other loops and cover them with the second towel. Now press on the loops in the towel sandwich to again get as much water out as possible.
Now find a nice place to hang your wool loops to dry. Then attach all the loops to your chosen spot with another piece of scrap yarn. Now it's time to be patient for the drying phase!
When everything finally feels dry, your loops are ready to be wound again. Proceed in the same way as you would with any other new skein of wool.
Yay - you did it! And lo and behold, it worked quite wonderfully and the yarn looks like new. That makes the new project all the more fun.
I hope I was able to give you a few tips along the way and you might lose your apprehension about washing used yarn. It really wasn't all that bad :)
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