Weekly Pinspirations: How NOT To Clean Yarn

I bought a bag of yarn at a thrift store a few weeks ago for $1 - it was yellow with a white twist in it from what I could see through the bag (it was tied closed), so I bought it and went on my merry way. When I got it home and opened the bag, I was not quite so thrilled with my find ...

It was moldy! Gross! At least it was only $1, but I really want to salvage what I could. I had come across a link on Pinterest that looked like it could help me out:

I saw this pin and figured that if you could wash the yarn to "soften it", it would be ok following the same process to actually wash it. So, I put my yarn into lingerie bags:

I put 3 into one bag and 1 in a bag by itself because it couldn't fit them all into the one. I put them in the wash on a small load on cold water with some detergent and a downy ball with vinegar in it - why not soften the yarn at the same time, right? So, I let the washer do its thing and I came back to find this:

Oh. My. Gosh. Right? It looked like someone had spilled noodles in the bottom of my machine. I was quite bummed to say the least. I hoped that even though the skeins had come undone that they would have still stayed somewhat together so I could separate the 3 in the one bag.

Yeah, that didn't happen. There are a few blobs that are bigger than others and one skein that still looks somewhat like a skein, but they are all seriously tangled together. I couldn't separate them. So, I just left them like that to dry on the dryer. I will say, they are definitely devoid of mold, but now completely unusable for a different reason all together. I shoved the yarn in a bag and that is where it will sit until I feel ambitious enough to try and untangle it - let's face it, it will probably stay all knotted like that for eternity, lol.

So, this pin is absolutely busted. If you need to clean your yarn, I suggest you try this idea instead:

Granted, the description of this pin is on how to make your own wool dryer balls, but the idea is fantastic - put the skein in a nylon and then wash it. This is what I will try next time - I'm hoping I never have to do it again though.

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF YARN, DO NOT "WASH" YOUR YARN IN A LINGERIE BAG! Save your sanity and just don't believe pinterest. lol Learn from my misfortune.