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Unusal wool

I’ve started designing a sweater. It’s knitted lace which is pretty new to me, but lots of fun. Anyway I’ve pull some yarn from my stash like a good girl. I found some beautiful, thin weight, black, 100% wool yarn. I think that’s perfect. I start knitting with it to discover black smudges on my fingers. The dye is actually transfering onto my hands!

Needless to say I had to return to the stash to find some different yarn. I can’t imagine knitting with wool that keeps staining my fingers. Any thoughts on what I can do fix the yarn so I can use it? I thought about wrapping it back into skeins and washing it in cold water and vinegar. It would be a lot of work, but if it worked I think it would be worth it.

lace1.jpg

A quick peek at my initial swatch.

3 Comments to “Unusal wool”

  1. Mordanting yarn that hasn’t been properly dyed is a real pain, it’s a shame that you’ve got this challenge on your hands. Vinegar can often set dye, but it isn’t a true mordanting substance, so it may not fix it as well as you’d like. I’d try knitting up a swatch and soak it for some time in a vinegar bath before you go to the effort of winding skeins. You may have lots of the dye seep out, but if you get a nice grey yarn out of it, it’s better than getting rid of it entirely, and you’ll know to just soak and rinse the yarn until the water runs clear.

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  2. Louise Author

    Yeah I’m pretty disappointed with that black wool. I’d be happy with grey wool too, so I may go ahead and hand wash and rinse it.

    I sketched out my sweater idea today so now the planning has to start. I haven’t designed for awhile because the last sweater I designed, although beautiful, it is too small. My gauge was off just enough that the sweater is one size smaller then I wanted. Of course it was a fitted sweater so there was no forgiveness. If I ever lose 10 lbs. the sweater will fit great :).

    This time I’m going to be more careful. I’m planning a light cardigan so it will be less fitted this time. When I get a chance I’ll post the sketch.

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