Using yarn in project that was swatched

I did several swatches for my current project. I have undone and wrapped around the ball of yarn. I thought it would unwrinkle but it hasn’t. Will it straighten out as I knit with it and be unnoticeable or should I do something to it first

Can you save it for last in case you need the yarn from the swatch? If not, you will likely have to wind around a chair back or swift, tie it loosely in several places and wet it. Then you can hang the loop up to dry with a light weight hanging from the loop (maybe a light clothes hanger).

On a scale of sort of wavy to ramen noodles straight out of the bag, how kinky is it? It might be OK to just reuse as is or it might not. I found this video about reusing yarn both helpful and interesting.

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Great timing! Or GMTA!

I just unraveled a light blue sweater. It has three strands that were not plied before being machine knit. The seams were sewn using separate two unplied strands without being surged (not cut or trimmed for sizing).

You can see how the stitches crinkled the acrylic yarn in this photo.

I am swatching for a stockinette pullover with insert sleeves. And I am working with it as is. I am not having any trouble working with three unplied strands because ot runs through my left hand and tension keeps the strands together. It might also be the hairs of the strands were lightly felted between the strands by the original work.

Good luck with your project!

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Very interesting. I think I unraveled shortly after doing the swatch but probably no longer than a week. It was mildly wavy, like swatch B or even slightly swatch C. So I will save that ball for last which would be the sleeves anyway. I might dampen that affected area anyway. Thanks for the video

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If you need the yarn to finish the sweater, the ribbing might be a good choice. With any luck you won’t need the swatch yarn at all. Let us know how it’s going.

If you’re saving it for the end of the project you have plenty of time to treat it for restoration and that might be a good choice. Whatever you decide please let us know. I have soaked ramen noodle sock yarn and weighted it to dry. It was still a little wavy but it worked out fine. Usually if I frog and don’t reknit the yarn right away I’m so annoyed I won’t do anything with it other than wind it into cakes and hide it out of sight.

eta I didn’t realize I was replying to OffJumpsJack … the reply probably makes not much sense in this context. :roll_eyes:

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As others have said, I would save that piece until the very end and only use it if I had to. It may be that you don’t need it at all, if you don’t need it for the main project you could make a little bracelet or head band to go with the dress (if this is the jumper dress project).
I would cut it off the main ball and wind it up and put it aside for now. If there are parts of the pattern you are unsure of it can be used for additional practise.
I sometimes keep bits I’ve used and unraveled for seaming too, or for adding a little bit of duplicate or incase I have a messy bit I want to tidy with a bit of sewing or duplicate to tidy it up. (For example on the multi colour cardigan I had some loose rows and I evened up the tension on those colours by drawing the extra yarn along the row to a seam and then using an extra thread to sew in the loop of yarn, no one would ever know. There were also some messy bits where the button band had been picked up, due to some rows having a less stable edge because of the multicolour used, I used spare yarn to duplicate on the body and draw in the button band tighter, fixing the messy bit, again no one would ever know, it looks even throughout - what I have realised is we can fix things after if our knitting isn’t ‘perfect’ throughout the knitting process.)

I know you were a little concerned about running out of yarn. A couple of things I do to guess how much I might need even when purchasing the given amount on the pattern, is look on ravelry to see how much other people used for the project and look on the pattern to see how many balls are needed for the next size up. For example a small might say 10 balls, but the medium might also say 10 balls, so I’d know making the small means more yarn left over. Looking at the larger sizes I can see where the ball number increases, it just gives me an idea of how frugal or carefree I can be.

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Great video thanks for sharing

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