Then I started knitting a gauge swatch and my hands turned blue. I was heartbroken. I hid the yarn at the bottom of my stash for nearly 6 months. It was so pretty that I couldn't throw it away, but I didn't want to use it for fear it would lose all its color as soon as I washed it.
Luckily, there is a great LYS, Grandma's Spinning Wheel, on our side of town. Vicky, the owner, talked me through the process of how to save my yarn. I set to work as soon as I got home.
How to rescue bleeding yarn
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My yarn was already wound into a ball, so the first step was to skein it to maximize the surface area of the yarn. I'm not a dyer, so I don't have a fancy tool to do this. Instead, I taped the end of the yarn to the top of a dining room chair. |
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Then I wound the yarn around the chair back and when I was done I used a couple thick pieces of string to secure both yarn tails and hold the skein together. |
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As you can see, after doing this, my fingers were blue. |
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My skein looked pretty good, though. |
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Next I soaked the yarn in a mixture of very hot (almost boiling) water and white vinegar until the water cooled completely. I was a little worried when I lifted the yarn out because the water was still crystal clear. |
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I gave the yarn a good rinse with cool water. |
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After rinsing I used a towel to blot out as much moisture as possible. |
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Then the skein sat overnight on my sweater drying rack. |
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Once it was completely dry I wound it back into a ball. Even though I have a yarn ball winder, I don't have a swift, so I resorted to another low-tech solution. I draped the skein over my studio trash can to keep the yarn from tangling as I wound. |
And finally the true test. I knit up a swatch and this time my fingers weren't blue. Now I can happily knit up my next favorite pair of socks.
So thank you Vicky for your advice and helping me rescue my bleeding skein of yarn!
