Do you have knitting yarn that itches and tickles?
Yes, balls of wool that sting and scratch, it happens often!
Besides, it's often the balls of colored yarn that itch.
It's unpleasant to wear on the skin, but it also irritates the fingers with which you knit.
And it's still more pleasant to knit good, very soft wool in which you want to snuggle up, don't you think?
Luckily, there is a genius trick to soften and supple itchy balls of yarn before knitting .
Don't worry, this grandma's trick is simple and works like a charm. Watch:
1. Remove labels from your balls of yarn.
2. Push your fingers inside the balls, so as to slightly untangle the threads that are a little too tight.
3. Put the balls of yarn in a small laundry bag, like this one. If you don't have one, you can use an old pantyhose.
4. Machine wash balls with similar colored laundry. You can also wash them with your terrycloth towels on the normal cycle.
5. Put the bag of balls in the dryer at low temperature, using the "wool" program.
There you go, your balls of wool that used to itch and scratch are now all soft :-)
Easy, fast and efficient, right?
It's still more pleasant to wear very soft wool than wool that stings and itches!
Also very useful if you are knitting baby things and want a particularly soft and fluffy result to the touch.
Now when you knit, your yarn won't hurt your hands anymore! And no more irritation of baby's skin and face! Yippee :-)
Know that your balls of wool will be more or less soft depending on the temperature of the water in your washing machine and the temperature of your dryer.
So it's up to you to test to see what works best with your appliances.
Anyway, what I promise you is that by using this grandma trick, my knitting yarn never got more irritating, and it never got tangled!
Take care to read the washing label of your skein carefully BEFORE washing it, to be sure to avoid an accident, as some colors may rub off.
Finally, this trick is particularly useful if you come across a lot of old vintage balls of yarn at a garage sale.
To knit even more easily, use a homemade ball organizer like me. It's very simple and it saves time. Check out the trick here.
