August 31, 2012

Craft Fail: Softening Scratchy Yarn

A while back, I saw this simple little tutorial on softening scratchy acrylic yarn on Pinterest. After forgetting to pin and tracking it back down, I found this little gem was originated by A Girl and Her Needle

It was as simple matter of removing your labels, loosening the skeins, tossing them in a lingerie bag, and then machine washing and drying them. I'd just bought eight or nine skeins of several colors to make gifts for Christmas that weren't as soft as I'd like them to be, particularly for the ones I planned to use to make child and baby gifts. So I thought I'd set them to go while I was busy painting. (Yes, I gave it a try that long ago and am just now posting. I've been busy!)

Yeah, don't forget to make sure your yarn ends are secured before you zip up the bag and toss it in. Otherwise, you end up with the tangled mess I pulled out of the dryer.
Yep, I nailed it!  ...If you ignore the big ball of knots.
Leave it to me to have a clueless moment and make yet more work for myself when I'm in a hurry. On the upside though, the yarn is much softer than it was starting out. In fact, I'm going to give this trick another try over the weekend with the other colors. I'll just make sure my ends are well secured before I start it washing.

1 comment:

  1. I'm going to try it with a finished product and see if I can get the same effect. IF I can make it through actually using the scratchy stuff. Fortunately, my Walmart has a new brand by Red Heart that's super soft.

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