Thursday, February 19, 2009

Kinky Yarn

Nah, I'm not talking the titillating kind of kinky, though it is intriguing to try to imagine how yarn could be that kind of kinky. I'm talking about been knit, blocked and frogged yarn.

I'm trying to resuscitate the yarn I took out of the toe of the Engineer's sock. I know I'm going to need it in the future when his toe pops through, and I only had a few yards left of each skein after knitting the socks.

Perhaps, I thought, if I hang the yarn up in the bathroom, gravity and a mild dose of shower steam will relax the bad permanent wave. So I hung it over the towel bar for a couple of weeks.

Still kinky.

So I hung it right in the shower with me -- away from the spray, of course.

Still kinky. Maybe a little less kinky, but still...

How's about another shower, a hotter one this time?

Don't know how that would have worked because at the end of my hotter shower I managed to knock the hanger off the top of the shower door and get the yarn all tangled like crazy trying to snatch it up before it got too wet and dropping it two more times. Did you know that wet yarn and wet skin stick together very effectively?

Not much I can say about that except there has been great debate over whether my middle name should be "Mess" or "Grace." Either fits me quite well, but I will claim "mess" as my avocation and "grace" as a sarcastically accurate description of my physical prowess.

The yarn did relax enough after that -- possibly from a mortal fear of being subjected to more of my attempts to straighten it -- that I decided it was acceptable and made a wee center pull ball of it.
I'm ready for toe holes.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Here's a little tip you might try--use a 'S' hook and a fish weight to pull the yarn straight--similar to what we do when dying home spun yarn and hanging it to dry to set the twist. You could try spritzing the yarn lightly to help get those kinks out then hang the weight on it.