Hey everyone! I’m new to this forum and I hope to make lots of fellow knitty friends!
I have been knitting all my life, so I hope I can help knitters as well as receive help!
My problem is in my yarn balls. I have a basket full of yarn balls, perfect and as new, but the problem is they’ve got very dusty. I’m sneezing as I knit!
Is there any way I can clean them, and how do I prevent this in the future?
What do you all do with your dusty balls? 
Thank you everyone!
What kind of fiber are they? Are they wound into balls/cakes or are they still in the original skeins or hanks? I’m not sure any of that matters, but thought I’d ask. I keep my yarn in covered bins or cabinets so haven’t had this issue, but I would think you could put them in a laundry bag and in a cool dryer for a few minutes to let the dust fly off.
You absolute star. I was picturing washing each and every skein, unravelling into hanks and hanging them up to dry! Yeeek!
All different materials I’m afraid but mostly acrylic. And they’re in skeins and balls.
Its my own fault really. They’re in open topped wicker baskets. Lesson learned, put them in baskets with blooming lids!
Ha, thanks! If they aren’t yarns you’re going to use right away they’d be better with covered containers. Not as pretty as in a basket, but less work in the end. 
Since it’s just dust I don’t think you’ll have to wash them. Acrylic is generally wash and dry so they should be fine for a bit in the dryer. Worth a try anyway. Let us know how it goes!
OK! I’m going to test it out on some cakes of acrylic. I will report back my experiments for anyone else who has this problem!
Hello and welcome! I used to keep my yarn in open wicker baskets too. I lived in a small city with good air quality only one cat electric heat and did not keep that much anyway. But I moved to the country with a small baby and had no time to knit and my 13 stopped too so the wool sat and dust( five cats and a wood stove)was not the only problem the whole basket became full of salt and pepper coloured grains . MOTHS EGGS, anyway basket tossed some wool tossed, I washed and dried anything I thought wouldn’t felt , froze and banged out some others.
I now keep my wool in a wicker basket, extra large freezer bags. Not as pretty,
but I have not had the problem again.
screams in horror
Moth eggs!!! Nooo!!!
Yeah, I’m currently rewinding soooo much yarn right now into hanks ready to be de-dusted. Its a good opportunity since I’m in the process of moving house, to finally sort out and thin the monster pile of colour, dust and thankfully no moths (so far).
Thank you both so much BTW! So kind to respond so quicky!