Washing Handspun Yarn

Lady spinning at Museum of Folk Life, Co. Mayo

I spent ages searching for my hand spinning book, and couldn't find it. I am so nervous of washing my hand-spun yarn, that I always need reassurance I am doing it right. Thankfully I blogged about washing my first hand-spun yarn last year, but it was rather a long-winded affair.




So, here is brief practicals of washing your hand-spun yarn, straight off the wheel.

Washing

• Fill sink with hand-hot water to hand-hot. (research suggests 36 degrees as hand-hot, think baby bath temperature)

• Gently immerse the skeins into the water. Leave this to cool, roughly about 45 mins.

• Then remove them, gently squeezing excess water

• Fill up the sink again, to same temperature as first time (36 degrees) but this time add a small amount of Laundry liquid. Very gently squeeze the suds through the yarn.

• Take skeins out again, leave to drain on a clothes rack.

• Re-fill sink, keeping water at the same temperature.

• Repeat until the water is clear.

Setting

To set the fibres, tension the yarn, straighten any kinks, etc, put the damp skeins on an adjustable curtain rail, and hand in the shower. To tension, put a doweling rod in the bottom, and hand a few plastic coat hangers for a bit more weight. Allow to dry...