I bought a very pretty red sweater from a thrift store and unraveled it with the intentions of using the yarn for another sweater. The yarn is 70% wool, 20% angora rabbit, and 10% synthetic. I washed a piece to see if it would relax, but it is still crimped as it was knitted in piece. Any advice on how to straighten it again or is it permanently set? I didn’t think about the fact that it might have been heat set when it was blocked. :pout:
The size states that it was a small, but believe me, it must have been labeled wrong. I wear a size 12 and it swallowed me.
If am not able to make this usable, does anyone want it?
I did a small swatch and you can still see the kinks. Maybe if I use a smaller needle and knit tighter it will be less noticeable. I didn’t think about that.
I’m sure our spinners and dyers here will have good advice, but I think if you wind it into hanks, wet it and hang it up with some weight pulling the hank down, that may help.
I knit with kinked yarn a lot as I take apart my old knitting, or stuff that didn’t work out or some thrift store sweaters. I just start with all the kinks and they work themselves out with handling or wash and wearing. Did you wash or block the swatch you made? That should even it out.
I love to recycle yarn. The secret is that you need to get it dripping, dripping wet. Then you need to hang it on a hanger and put it outside. The weight of the wet yarn gently stretches it out while it dries. Smaller pieces don’t have enough weight to stretch themselves out!
Cotton blends. And acrylic. Though I’ve got a couple merino wool sweaters that I made about 2/3 of and they haven’t worked out right, and reknit as something else. Sometimes they were sitting knitted up for several months and I’ve used them straight off the old piece. Haven’t washed them, but they look fine as I’m working with them on the new piece.
Let me clarify. I see that I said I did and I didn’t make a swatch. I knitted a small piece about 2x1 to see how the stitches looked, unraveled it and then I washed the long piece of yarn. Normally, when I think of swatch, I’m thinking about a piece that measures about 4x4.
The secret is that you need to get it dripping, dripping wet. Then you need to hang it on a hanger and put it outside. The weight of the wet yarn gently stretches it out while it dries.
OH! DO I HAVVVVVVE TO? :pout: There is so much of it and it took SOOOOO long to roll it into balls. This may have to go on a back burner, WAYYYY back burner for now. Until I get more time. I was just so hopping one of you that uses recycled wool would tell me that it will relax with the first wash and look beautiful. :verysad:
Swatch is just a word for a knitting sample; it doesn’t have to be exactly 4x4… it can be 3x2 or 6x4 or whatever size you feel like. It’s just to get a look at how many sts/rows per inch and what the yarn looks like in the stitch you’re making. And how it behaves after you wash and/or block it. You put it back into hanks and wet it and let it hang with weight, but you don’t have to. It really will knit up okay if you don’t.
Do you have a yarn swift? If not, you can wrap the yarn around a chair to make it into a large hank. When it’s wrapped (or wound on a swift), you take it off, and then you have a large circle of yarn to work with. It’s easy to handle then.
Then, get it wet, and hang it somewhere to dry, with a weight holding down the other end. That will pull out all the kinks.
If you don’t want to mess with it, just send it to me. I’m a spinner, so I’m used to doing it.