Guest Author - Llyn Payne
You’ve finished spinning the yarn for a long anticipated project and can hardly wait to get work on the project underway. But stop for a minute and consider: Is your yarn going to behave in the way you think it will? Is it going to look just right? Will it hold up once the project is finished and washed? Or could that yarn turn out behave in ways you hadn’t considered or anticipated and which won’t show up until after the project is completed?
The time to avoid any unpleasant surprises in your finished project is after the spinning is done and before the project is started. This is the time to commit yarn abuse.
Yarn abuse takes just a little bit more time than simply wet finishing your yarns but it can be fun and also a great way to relieve stress. Yarns from different fibers need different types of abuse and some need a fair amount while some yarns need only a few dunks in hot and cold baths.
Woolen spun yarns: The purpose of abusing these yarns is to slightly felt them and raise a slight nap for greater warmth and to preshrink them before they are used in a project. This is the spinner’s equivalent of a seamstress washing her fabric before cutting out a garment. Put the yarn in a tub of really hot water and use a toilet plunger (reserved for this purpose) to agitate it up and down. Then toss the hot yarn into cold water and plunge it again. Repeat this process two or three times for best results. Give the yarn a final cold rinse, then put your hands inside of the skein and give the skein a good snap. Work around the skein, snapping it in at least 4 places and hang it to dry.
Worsted spun yarns: If these are to be used for weaving, no abuse is necessary. In fact worsted weaving yarns do not even need to be wet finished as this is taken care of after the woven fabric is off the loom and occurs when the woven fabric is fulled. For knitting yarns, simply wash the worsted yarn a hot bath followed by a cold bath. Repeat the baths several times. Worsteds do not need to be plunged unless you want to raise a nap and slightly felt the yarn, in which case treat them just like woolens.
Mohair and Angora yarns: If you want to raise a halo on these yarns, treat them as woolens but go a step further and slap the damp skeins against a flat surface, working all around the skein. The more these yarns are abused, the greater the halo. Note: Too much halo can hinder knitting so go for shrinkage here and raise the halo later by abusing the project (sample first!) or by brushing.
Silks: Yarn abuse helps bring out the luster in silk yarns. Wash them in hot and cold baths, but without plunging. Then give the damp skein several sharp snaps all the way around and slap it on a flat surface. Tug and slap equally all the way around the skein.
Linen: Now, here’s where we really get carried away with abusing our yarns. Linen yarns are really stiff and our goal is to soften them up. Do a series of hot & cold baths and then place the wet skein in a sealed plastic bag and toss it in the freezer until it’s frozen solid. Thaw it under hot running water. Snap the skein and lay it our on a flat rock or a wooden board. Now take a wooden mallet and give it a good pounding. Hang to dry. This treatment softens the fibers and also brings out the luster.
Whatever type of yarn you spin and whatever you make from your yarns, always give the yarns at least as harsh of treatment before using them in a project as you will give the finished item. This eliminates any nasty surprises such as having a sweater that shrinks 2 sizes the very first time it’s washed.
