Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Dekink yarn with steam--instant results

Back in 2007, TECHknitting blog showed how to de-kink yarn, but time does not stand still.  In the intervening years, a newer INSTANT-steam method has come into use here at chezTECH.  The old post about de-kinking yarn has been updated to reflect this new trick, but it seemed worthwhile to note the update in a new post, too.  You can actually see the kinks relaxing right out of the yarn, and seeing is believing.

Important--the iron never ever rests on the yarn.  The you-tube shows 100% WOOL yarn, and for woolen yarn, you can sorta-kinda-almost touch the yarn with the iron, as shown. For non-woolen yarn, and particularly for ACRYLIC yarn, do NOT come as close to the yarn as shown in the you-tube, instead, keep the iron about an inch or so ABOVE the yarn, or you will over-steam the acrylic yarn into a rather limp state (over-steaming, alarmingly enough, is called "killing" the acrylic!)




For verrry stubborn kinks, where steam-de-kinking does not work, you can go back to the 2007 post and have a look at how to de-kink yarn the old-fashioned way, by wet-blocking, but do try this instant-steam method first!

Good knitting, TK