Can my yarn be saved?

Question

I have been trying to organize my crafts, and control my yarn balls that have taken over our small 2 bedroom apartment. I started emptying the box i had been tossing the yarn in over the past few weeks, and there are ones at the bottom that the not-yet-litter-trained kitten apparently peed on. They are all cheap acrylic yarns, but most are in balls. I don't want to touch the stuff to put it in hanks, so how would i clean this? I am all too dependent on the kindness of strangers for my yarn, collecting at bargain prices from people who find yarn they decide they don't want anymore. Any advice. I now have my yarn in a sealed plastic bag, what didn't get smelly, sticky, and gross.

Answer 1

Both of the above ideas are good.  I will add .....since the yarn is in balls, only wash 1 at a time in a lingerie bag.  Otherwise, they might get all tangled together and you will have more of a mess.

Answer 2

try putting it in lingerie bags and washing it  so it doesn't knot up -

Answer 3

If you don't want to touch the yarn with bare hands, can't say I blame you, get a pair of rubber gloves and use the legs of a chair to wind it into hanks.  Tie it at the four legs with string and put the hanks into a lingerie bag to wash them.  Even though it's acryllic, I wouldn't run it through the entire wash cycle of the machine, though.  Run the machine to fill it with water, add some detergent and something to get the smell out, add the bag of hanks, let it agitate for only a moment or so to get it thoroughly wet and get the detergent in it, and let it soak for half an hour.  Take the bag out, empty the machine, refill it with fresh water and a half cup of vinegar (trust me, vinegar smells better than urine) and again, agitate the yarns for only a moment and soak them again to rinse them for half an hour, then move the machine forward to the final spin cycle and let the water spin out for a minute or so.  Then hang the hanks on coat hanger hooks to dry overnight.  Then you can rewind them into balls.  They will dry better this way, leaving them to dry in balls may allow mildew to form in the center and you will have yet another nasty problem to deal with.  Keep your dry, clean yarns in sealed containers.

Answer 4

Put the soiled yarn in pillow cases and seal with a rubber band.  Take a product called Nature's Miracle and add to the wash cycle.  This stuff works really well on pet stains and urine.  You may have to wash it a couple of times and let it sit out to dry on a really hot and sunny day.  Do not dry the yarn, let it dry naturally outside.

EDIT: When you get the smell out, put in some cedar blocks or balls in the containers to keep everything fresh. Spray the inside of the containers with the Nature's Miracle to get rid of any residual smells.  Rubber band each ball so they don't unravell and then put into the pillowcase.