Knitting help-how to straighten unpicked wool

nwc389

I want to unpick a cardigan that I knitted just this winter as I have lost weight and it is way too big.
It was decent wool so I want to use it again , can anyone advise OS ways of getting the kinks out of it ?

missbiggles1

My mother used to wind the wool round one or more hot water bottles filled with very hot water and leave it overnight.

theoretica

Wind it into skeins rather than balls. I would then wash them (gently - make sure you tied the skeins enough the don't tangle) and hang them to dry with a bit of weight on the bottom.

Living_proof

theoretica wrote: »

Wind it into skeins rather than balls. I would then wash them (gently - make sure you tied the skeins enough the don't tangle) and hang them to dry with a bit of weight on the bottom.

I remember doing this as a child - nothing ever went to waste in those days!

[Deleted User]

theoretica wrote: »

Wind it into skeins rather than balls. I would then wash them (gently - make sure you tied the skeins enough the don't tangle) and hang them to dry with a bit of weight on the bottom.

That's exactly what I do when I find small cardi's at boot sales for under 50p as I recycle the wool to make charity blankets for The Linus Trust. I put into hanks and gently swish in water with a handful of Lux flakes or Dreft or even Stergene. Then wrap the hank in an old towel and wring as tight as I can then hook the hank into a coat hanger and hang on the line to blow dry .The amount of water left in it should pull the kinks out and once dry just wind into balls.Its surprising what you can often pick up for a few bob at a boot sale.One lady gave me a whole carrier bagful once for a quid as I told her what it was for.Recycling at its best I grew up in the 1940s-50s when everything was recycled as much as possible

Living_proof

JackieO wrote: »

I grew up in the 1940s-50s when everything was recycled as much as possible

Every home had a rag bag - remember? A lot of patchwork quilts started that way I am sure.

[Deleted User]

Indeed I could turn the heel of a sock by the time I was 10 and cannot remember a time when I didn't knit. Stuff that was really rags were turned into rugs that went by your bed on top of the lino no central heating, or double glazing and the outside loo was horrible with spiders the size of dinner plates it looked like :):) I have no rose-tinted glasses for the 'old days I am glad they have gone :):)

Dclutterchique

Another method is to use a steam iron (or as I've successfully done a wallpaper steamer).

http://techknitting.blogspot.co.uk/2007/02/kinky-yarn.html

This works best on pure wool or yarn with a high percentage of wool. If your yarn is all or mostly acrylic then 'under' rather than 'over' de-kink so you don't kill the yarn.

nwc389

Thanks everyone, I'm slowly working the seams out at the moment but I will get it unraveled and then give your methods a try .

Eenymeeny

I seem to remember being 'enlisted' to help, by sitting still while my mother wrapped the wool from hand to hand creating skeins, sometimes she used two dining chairs back to back. Maybe it was just a way of keeping us occupied but I suppose that was our 'family time'

[Deleted User]

Eenymeeny wrote: »

I seem to remember being 'enlisted' to help, by sitting still while my mother wrapped the wool from hand to hand creating skeins, sometimes she used two dining chairs back to back. Maybe it was just a way of keeping us occupied but I suppose that was our 'family time'

Indeed it was how wool was sold in 'hanks' back in the 1940s-50s.Balls of wool hand to be hand-wound by any spare child you could dragoon into doing it golly it mad you arms ache