Sunday, May 5, 2013

Dirty Hank?


How to clean a Dirty Hank of Alpaca

After you have wrapped your yarn around your kniddy knoddy to figure yardage, tie bits of yarn around each section. This will keep your strands in place when it’s floating around underwater.

   


 










When spinning this yarn, it left black, greasy spots on my fingers and palms where it rubbed. This yarn needs a couple hot baths. To get most of the dirty grease out of the yarn, I add quite a bit of Dawn soap to the sink, then fill it with hot, but no scalding, water. It will foam quite a bit and the water should feel slick when you rub your fingers together. Add the dirty hank. Do not twist, rub, wring, squeeze, or scrunch the hank. Gently press it to the bottom, releasing some of the air bubbles, then let it soak for 15 full minutes.

 


After 15 minutes, swirl the alpaca in the sink a few times, then draw it up out of the water, holding the hank with your fingers separating the strands. Do not twist, rub, wring, or scrunch the yarn. It is now in a critical stage and can felt easily. Gently squeeze the water out of the yarn from the top to the bottom. Set it aside and rinse out your soapy sink. Add more water (as close to the same temperature as the first bath). This next rinse will be to get the soap out of the yarn. Do not add anything to the water. Add the less dirty hank to the water. Let soak for 15 minutes.

  
 

 












Again, give the yarn a swirl in the sink and draw the yarn up out of the water, separating the strands. Squeeze all the water out of the alpaca, then set it aside. The grease that was in your fiber was full of dirt, hay, grass, and possibly fecal matter, but would be what would make the yarn soft. We just scoured it all down the drain. This time, we want to soften and condition the yarn. This will be my final bath, but if your yarn is extra dirty, you should add more soapy soaks and rinses. Fill your sink with hot water and add a wool rinse, like Eucalan No Rinse Delicate Wash, Lanolin Enriched.  Press the yarn down into the water, releasing the air bubbles. Let soak for 15 minutes.
  

 
 


















Have your drying method set up prior to this last step. I use a wooden laundry shelf with a bar for hangers. I rig up an (old, ugly) towel so that no water gets on anything beneath the drippy hanks. You could use your shower curtain rod or an indoors clothesline. I have hangers ready, as well as another (pretty ugly) towel.

Squeeze all of the water out of the hank, one last time. Lay yarn on the towel and roll it up, squeezing with each roll. Unroll and place on hanger for drying.

   


 










Your yarn should be soft, bouncy, and a little fuzzy. It’s probably curling too. I let my yarn dry in this state, but you could add hangers to the bottom of the hank to weigh the yarn down. Too much weight will take away the memory of the yarn and its elasticity. It may take 24 hours for your hank to dry.


  

 















I always clean more than one hank at a time. I have a very small house and this project takes up my “laundry room,” which is in my kitchen. Since this whole scouring and drying process takes up time and space, I even wash more than one hank at a time. Depending on how dirty the yarn is, the yardage, and the bulk, you could wash 3 medium to large hanks at one time, in the same basin/sink. Adjust water-level per basin size. And of course, I try to wash as much yarn that will fit into the drying space.