I just received 3 skeins of Cherry Tree Hill’s North Country Cotton and I was all set to begin a new project when I had to stop casting on after just a few stitches because of the very unpleasant smell coming from this yarn. It actually reminds me of formaldehyde. (I’m a former pathologist, so I’m no stranger to that smell).
I have sent an email to Cherry Tree Hill to ask about it, but I wonder if any of you have insight into this phenomenon. I simply don’t want to knit with it as it is. It stinks.
could it be from something they used to set the dye?
maybe airing it out for a day or so would help. or gently rinsing it in something veeeeery mild. or letting it sleep in a paper bag with a fabric softener sheet for a couple days…
MrsJSD… Not a nice experience. I am very sensitive to smell and would not be able to work with the yarn either. I totally agree that contacting the company was best and I would snip a bit off and enclose it in a snap lock bag and send to them. I would then wash the rest in a mild wool wash mix. It is either a chemical on the yarn OR something that was perhaps in the storage facility the yarn was held in or the actual packaging. I once had yarn sent to me that had been packed in a type of plastic that really pervaded the yarn but, as you say, you feel you’ve defined the smell. Could it be a pest control chemical at all? Again I’m wondering about where it may have been stored. I am thinking of a time when I ordered yarn online and wound up waiting several weeks as what I wanted was apparently behind palettes that all had to be moved first and this was in the retailers storage facility and not the yarn company. I would imagine such places are regularly sprayed for pests.
I guess the only thing about washing the yarn is that once you do the company may not exchange it (if that’s what you’d prefer).
I got some from Katsara Yarns that just smelled AWFUL. I noticed that inside the package they had added a little sachet of potpourri. I guess that’s why!
Anyway, when I wound it up the smell seemed to go away.
Momto G B and H… I dislike pot pourri that has really really cheap scent added to it. Pot pourri should vibrate with natural smells! I was handed down a wonderful old jar of pot pourri from my mother and made one of my own that is lovely. But on a third I made the mistake of throwing some cheap commercial pot pourri I had been given in with all my leaves and flowers. I wound up needing to throw it out. Terrible smell in the end!
Could the smell be from an anti-moth/bug repellant they would use during storage? Would unwinding the skeins and hanging them outside for awhile air them out? Although formalin is tough to beat - like cadaverin or whatever that’s called. And hanging them outside might be begging for a different kind of trouble - squirrels and stuff.
OT: I’m a pathologist too! Well, a resident, at Northwestern. I’m almost done, and then I’m planning on doing heme. So I know all too well about the smelly stuff!