Kinky yarn

[falalalalisa]

I'm thinking of trying to learn to knit in the new year, but there's nowhere near me that sells knitting wool, so I was thinking of unravelling a jumper or blanket from a charity shop.

I was wondering though if the yarn would be all kinky and would that make it difficult to knit, especially for a beginner? Anyone tried this? What do you think?

Thanks!

Yes, it would be kinky and it doesn't knit up properly when it's like that. The simplest thing to do is to wind it up in a loose skein then just soak it for a few seconds in warm water which gets the kinks out, then hang it out to dry.

You can also buy yarn really easily (and often more cheaply) on the internet.

HTH

I have happy childhood memories of unravelling old jumpers, wrapping it round the back of a chair to make a skein and then steaming it with a kettle to get the kinks out

If you unravel the yarn and put it in a steamer that will get a lot of the kinks out.

I must admit, I opened this thread (haha!) hoping it might be about Kinky Things To Do With Yarn In Bed.

yes sue, it was just a shameless ploy to get your attention

ah a fellow jumper unraveller

it is a good, eco friendly thing to do. Ignore the naysayers. Also, for some reason that is beyond me, kids seem to enjoy it. So there is potential for free labour.

Also if you buy wool (or a protein fibre eg nylon) you can dye the yarn with supercook dyes and cream of tartar.

Two things.

1. its worth checking gauge BEFORE you unravel. Their gauge will be different to yours, esp if its machine knitted, but it will give you an idea.

1. I must say I soak for much longer than a few minutes! Normally an hour or two. I often combine this with first a brief shampoo and rinse, then a vinegar/cream of tartar soak-the latter prepares the yarn for dying. Probably best not to leave in for TOO long (like a week) as the point of the vinegar bath is to lower the ph of the yarn.

And worryingly, I opened this thread hoping it WAS about unravelling jumpers.

That is not good really, is it?

Oh dear, C&LsMummy! Maybe you need to get out more?

We used to wind it round a hot water bottle. That gets the kinks out. I only ever unravelled hand knitted jumpers though as the yarn on modern machine knitted ones wouldn't be suitable for hand kitting.
Much too thin.

Where are you finding these sweaters?
I have a good regular look round the charity shops and never find any good candidates.

I think i last found such a sweater in about 1979.
You need a handknitted garment to unpick and re-use sucessfuly. Not many of those around anymore these days. I just go and buy new wool its much less faff.

and loads of places online sell wool

actually quite a few charity shops sell donated balls of wool too

ah, cardiff may have crappy libraries, but at least it does jumpers right

Bascially, you need to be looking in the men's section (you can get a lot of wool out of the xxl ones) and you need to be prepared to dye the wool. This is VERY EASY, provided it is actually wool.

And unless you enjoy faffing, go for something quite chunky to start with.

Machine knit ones are fine.

I actually don't do this much anymore because I am fussy about itchiness, and most of those jumpers are itchy. I went through a big felting phase a while back and got most of my yarn this way though.

and like I say-it MUST be a chunky jumper. They DO exist, mainly in the men's section.