I’ve taken up dying my own yarns… pretty much only wool. What can I do after the yarn has been dyed and dried to make it a little softer? It seems that the yarns stick to themselves a little bit and are “rougher” than before I dyed them.
Any suggestions?
TIA!
Kelly
Your yarn is felting a little while you are dying it. Sometimes this happens to me, too. My experience is that after the felted strands have been separated the yarn is OK. Do they still feel rough after you ball the skeins and knit a sample? If they do you may be stirring the yarn in the dye bath too fast, you have to stir it very gently.
Oh geez and I tried so hard to keep the water the same temperature!! I haven’t tried to knit any yet so I couldn’t answer that but they still are rough after I make them into balls. And it’s not like they are super rough just enough to irritate me! 
I thought I read online somewhere although i can’t find it now of course where there was something you could wash your wool yarns in after they dying process to further set the colors and to make them super soft again? Maybe it was only a dream!
You can take wool from cool water into warm, but not from warm or hot into cool. I usually take mine out of the hot dyebath, squeeze it gently to remove excess water and dye (I wear plastic gloves, the yellow kind, not the thin medical ones) then I put it on a flattened cardboard box to cool, each skein in its own heap. Then when it has cooled, I rinse in cool water. Then I put it in the washing machine to spin it because then it dries faster. I learned this when I was dyeing fleeces.
you could use wool wash with lanolin (eucalan ect) or regular hair contditioner. just soak and rinse. BE GENTLE
Carol Lee (of http://www.thesheepshedstudio.com/) has a trick of taking wool from one temp of water to another. I didn’t believe it, so had to try it myself … It works!
As long as the wool is dripping wet (not wrung at all), you can take wool from one temp to another without ill effects.
I use hair conditioner in my final rinse to help soften the wool
Do you use hair conditioner instead of wool wash or wool wash and then the conditioner? It seems that I have to do alot of rinsing to get the Woolite out (I only use a tiny amout). I’m always worried about all that rinsing, even though I try my best to be very gentle.
I’ve only used a small amount of dish detergent or shampoo to the water to soak the yarn, rinse a couple times, then add small amount of hair conditioner to final rinse water, wring and hang to dry
use it after. and woolite is not good for wool knits, it is too harsh! if you can’t find wool wash, try gentle baby shampoo or baby wash soap. HTH
Thanks. I’ll try baby shampoo. I’ll be on the look out for wool wash on my next trip to the city.