A Little PSA I posted in the Knit Chat Facebook Group This Morning



Let me take the time to do a quick PSA or Public Service Announcement.... Fellow Crafters can we please stop the yarn abuse! It is not ok to strangle the mess out of the poor yarn as you wind it. Yarn does not like being caked up and left for years. It puts a strain on the fibers, makes them weak and even damage them. I share this with you my fellow friends because during the week I bought a lovely skein of hand dyed, hard to find yarn online. The picture showed the yarn skeined up in all of its glory. When it got to me, it not only had been caked but felt like the first time one tries to make homemade biscuits. You know what I am talking about, where it you threw it at the wall it would bust through the drywall and stick into a 2x4. Anyways it was awful and the yarn felt awful. It felt like a rope and no longer yarn. Trying to work with this would have been a nightmare! See when you cake your yarn so tight it adds extra twist, it takes the fluffy soft fibers and pulls on them making them tight and just unbearable. When you try to pull from a tight cake the yarn usually tangles. It makes you want to toss it, cut it, cuss it and vow never to buy that yarn again. Dear Friends it is not the yarns fault. Imagine for a moment you are told to crawl into a box, you are hunched over crammed in there and left for months... years. You would be come sore, it may even take a warm bath to get your muscles to relax. Same thing with yarn, sometimes if a cakes is wound and too tight, you can still rescue it. You can wind it back to its hank form and tie it off, give it a gentle bath and let it hang to dry. The fibers will perk back up. The will become fluffy again. Then show that yarn you love it. Wind it properly and let it bloom into the project it wants to be, You will not longer hate the feel of it between your fingers you will giggle in delight as it slides over your needles. As you pull from a properly formed caked the yarn comes out willingly ready to make that next stitch... So fellow Crafters I BEG OF YOU do not strangle the life from your yarn... your project and yarn will thank you.

For infomation of properly winding yarn please check out this link bellow. There is a link fr hand winding and swift winding
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm9ObbbrzXY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_28dl0Fv8c

This has been a PSA provided to you formwww.yarning4asmile.blogspot.com

Craft on people craft on smile emoticon

^^As my wonderful Friend Debra Helstrom pointed out : You can also wind it first from the hank, take it off the ball winder, and then rewind it. It comes out so much nicer and looser. : I agree I often do this and even though it takes a bit longer it will cause you less headaches and be better for the yarn.

~~Info http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2013/12/how-to-store-yarn/