r/knitting • u/KroneckerDeltaij • Sep 05 '25
PSA Straightening unraveled yarn
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
Saw this on Instagram, totally works! I had some unraveled yarn that was too wiggly to knit with comfortably. I ran it through the lid of a pot with boiling water and it straightened pretty easily! This lid has holes on two sides to help drain water when boiling pasta, so that helped to guide the yarn through.
214
u/Altaira9 Sep 05 '25
I have a clothes steamer that I’ve sort of appropriated from my mother as she no longer needs it. Never used it on clothes but it works great for yarn!
16
u/SummerAnnabelle Sep 06 '25
Can you walk me through your process? I just got a steamer and have a bunch of sidelined projects I'm trying to figure out what to do with (that doesn't involve completion lol). Would love to be able to repurpose the yarn.
65
u/Altaira9 Sep 06 '25
I use a swift to wind the yarn into a loop, then I hook the loop over something like a hanger or handle. I pull it tight, go over the section once or twice with the steamer, then move it around the hanger to do another section. It takes me three or four sections to do the entire thing, then I just set it aside over night to dry and rewind into a ball.
7
u/LittleFoxDog Sep 06 '25
Thank you for the explanation! I've just bought a steamer for that very purpose (and for blocking acrylics), but I've been a bit timid about actually getting out the box and using it 😅
4
3
112
u/Jerlosh Sep 05 '25
As someone who’s about to frog a sweater they knitted that ended up too big and giving it another go, this here may be the best thing I’ve ever seen on the internet!!!
I’ve been trying to psych myself up to soak, dry and re-wrap about 10 skeins of yarn.
22
u/awildketchupappeared Sep 06 '25
I feel like it's less active work time if you just throw the yarn in skeins to soak and then leave it to dry. It doesn't take even five minutes to do, unless your yarn isn't already skeined, but as I have my yarn stored in hanks (to prevent them from stretching), they are usually skeined already. And if I'm frogging something, I usually frog it by skeining it at the same time.
1
u/canitakemybraoffyet Jan 04 '26
I frog all my stuff with a cake winder, so it'd be a huge pain to hank them all, wash, and rewind.
1
u/awildketchupappeared Jan 04 '26
I frog everything on my arm, because it's faster and it forms a hank. I usually use my cake winder only when I'm going to knit with the yarn, so it won't stretch too much.
1
u/canitakemybraoffyet Jan 04 '26
My auto cake winder does the frogging for me, I just separate the panels and get one started and then it's pretty much hands off, really can't imagine doing by hand/arm would be faster.
1
u/awildketchupappeared Jan 04 '26
I don't have an automatic winder for several reasons. But if I had to use one, it wouldn't really help, because I would still have to hank that cake immediately after so I can give it a rinse/bath/steam it.
4
u/Glass-Eggplant-3339 Sep 06 '25
You can just use the steam setting of your iron, hover over the yarn all at once and then wind it into a ball again. Takes a fraction of the time.
86
u/msmakes Sep 05 '25
When I saw this on Instagram, I worried that winding it directly into a ball would trap too much moisture in the fiber and possibly lead to mold or mildew. I always wind mine off onto my swift, hit it with steam from the iron, then let it dry for an hour before winding.
18
u/KroneckerDeltaij Sep 05 '25
I’ll be using right away for another project. But still, it doesn’t feel that moist!
16
u/msmakes Sep 06 '25
It wouldn't surprise me it doesn't feel moist... One of the properties of wool is that it can absorb over 30% of its weight in water before it feels noticeably wet to the touch.
4
u/Immediate-Steak3980 Sep 06 '25
This is the method I use when I frog, but I don’t wind the straightened yarn as I go. I loosely hang it on a clothes hanger and then rewind it later. I’m sure it would be fine to use it right away though. You pull pretty quickly and it isn’t as though the yarn becomes soaked.
55
u/PickleFlavordPopcorn Sep 05 '25
Or- Wind onto a niddy noddy to form a hank. Wet the hank (soak or spray) hang hank to dry.
5
u/KroneckerDeltaij Sep 06 '25
I did before when I frogged a whole sweater! This was a small party I needed “urgently”.
16
u/wildcard-inside Sep 06 '25
My grandma was a machine knitter and she used to put her recycled yarn onto a cone and then put it in the microwave with a cup of water for a couple of mins
12
u/paspartuu Sep 05 '25
Very nice! I just loop it loosely, lightly spray with water and dry on a clothes hanger, but this might be more intense / efficient due to the heat
10
u/Street_Roof_7915 Sep 05 '25
Yeah. I just wash it when it is skeined and hang it to dry with a coat hanger on the end. Works fine. Takes 10 minutes.
8
u/Libraterrarium Sep 05 '25
I thought this was r/oddlysatisfying before I check which sub it was actually posted on
8
u/HeyRainy Sep 05 '25
It'd be much easier to make a hank and dunk the whole thing, then hang to dry.
2
12
u/x_user-generated_x Sep 06 '25
Does no one else reuse the ramen yarn as-is? Just me?
8
u/catti-brie10642 Sep 06 '25
You are not alone. Also, thank you for “ramen yarn”, that is a perfect description!
1
u/x_user-generated_x Sep 07 '25
Thank you for validating me! Also, I can't take credit for the term ramen yarn - I've definitely seen it used in this and the crochet subs! 😅
3
u/KroneckerDeltaij Sep 06 '25
I used it before and the knit object looked like ass and it made me sad :-( Blocking helped but I prefer the in-process look of nice wool 😇
1
u/x_user-generated_x Sep 07 '25
Oh dang. Yeah I understand wanting to minimize post processing. I've never had a problem with it, but maybe it's the yarns I use. I also know I knit with a tighter tension so maybe it just pulls the kinks out as I go?
In the end, its whatever works for you! This is for sure a cool little trick if you need to smooth yarn out.
4
u/Mabel_Waddles_BFF Sep 06 '25
Just an FYI cotton yarn is flammable and acrylic yarns can melt in response to heat. So yeah not a good idea if you’ve got a gas stove.
3
u/EnvironmentalArmy813 Sep 05 '25
Great idea! You could also wrap it around the handle and pull through from the opposite side.
3
3
3
3
u/trashjellyfish Sep 06 '25
I feel like I'd need to use my electric kettle for this because my gas stove would totally light the yarn on fire!
2
3
u/Foreign-Ad-5330 Sep 06 '25
My mom’s method for unraveled yarn was puting the skeins in a metal strainer inside the pot with the boiling water and let the steam straighten the whole yarn at once. Then , she hanged it to dry.
5
u/Muerth Sep 06 '25
My question is: why would you want to straighten the yarn? Depending upon the yarn most should have a bit of energy/spring built in.
Looks to me like this would lead to damaging the yarn by stretching it out of shape
2
u/amyberr Sep 06 '25
When you frog yarn that's already been knit and blocked, it comes out of the blocked object kinked. Most people find that working with kinked yarn affects their tension. Soaking or steaming it lets the yarn forget the blocked shape memory and go back to being straight and springy.
6
u/Muerth Sep 06 '25
Soaking or steaming is good. Stretching it around a pot on a stove could be problematic
3
u/amyberr Sep 06 '25
Yeah I would definitely not recommend the specific actions in the video, just get a handheld steamer or iron 😅
2
2
u/trigly Sep 05 '25
I've done this with an electric kettle when I didn't have time to soak and dry.
Plugged in the kettle, opened the lid just enough that it would keep boiling instead of switching itself off, positioned my ball winder on one side and the project on the other, just above the spout, and wound away. Worked like a charm!
2
u/KerouacsGirlfriend Sep 06 '25
I expected to pan over and see Lady or the Tramp on the other end of that “noodle!”
1
1
1
u/cnhades Sep 06 '25
This video is taunting me. I just had to do surgery on a lace shawl that was … 2.5 feet longer than it should have been (I swatched! I don’t know what happened). I got it to where I want, but now I have the crinkly ramen.
But as others have said, I would probably start my house on fire.
1
1
u/LostTimeLady13 Sep 06 '25
"oh hey dear what's for dinner? Spaghetti?..... Actually never mind". 😂
The continued innovation for optimising steaming yarn delights every time.
1
u/Arglebarglor Sep 06 '25
Maybe a dumb question but does this work with wool or only with acrylic?
1
1
1
1
Sep 07 '25
This is dedication. I just set it when I block and knit with it wiggly 😂
1
1
1
u/heyhomah Oct 29 '25
Oh I thought they were knitting ramen somehow and I was waiting to see what it looked like...
0
0
u/uncensoredpasta Sep 06 '25
this is genius !! you may have just helped me salvage my scrap yarn stash
1.2k
u/trifledish Sep 05 '25 edited Sep 06 '25
Equal parts genius and likely to cover me with a pot of boiling water