You should always clean new or used clothing before it is worn. You never know what could be on it from the previous owner or from someone who tried it on in the store. If you plan to unravel a sweater, there are a few precautions that are a good idea.
This page covers:
Washing/Soaking
Dust and Particulates
Pests
Quarantine
Treatment
Washing/Soaking:
Not all sweaters are donated equal. Some are going to be donated in good, clean condition. Most of the things I have found at Goodwill (aside from holes) are fairly clean and don’t require washing before unraveling (I wash the yarn afterwards). However, dirt, dust, dry-cleaning chemicals, and animal hair can pose a potential problem. Evaluate each garment you plan to unravel and decide if it needs to be cleaned beforehand. Each sweater will have it’s own cleaning instructions. Often garments that say dry clean only can be gently soaked in water with shampoo or wool wash, but if you are unsure then do your research first. I have successfully soaked wool, cashmere, silk, and linen in hot water without a problem. Sometimes bright colors will bleed, so soak your items individually. If you find that a dye is bleeding into the water, you can add a splash of vinegar or some citric acid crystals to help “fix” the dye in animal hair fibers. Salt will usually help fix dye in plant fibers. If you add anything to the water that isn’t a leave-in product, be sure to rinse the garment afterwards.
Dust and Particulates:
Unraveling a sweater, even one that has been washed, will create dust. Some of it may be dirt that did not wash out, and some of it will be bits of fiber coming off the yarn itself. These particulates are not particularly great to inhale, and if you have allergies they are awful. Depending on the speed with which you are unraveling, they can float from the yarn gently or they can fly around forcefully. Either way, it is wise to use some sort of dust mask when you unravel. It can be something as simple as tying a scarf or bandanna around your nose and mouth (I use a silk scarf and it’s quite easy to breathe through). I have a very strong allergy to dust mites, and I find that the scarf eliminates all of my breathign and sneezing problems when I am dealing with the yarn.
Pests:
- Lice:
Lice are a common enough pest in crowded environments, but they die fairly quickly when detached from a source of food (human body) for a day. Fortunately, they are relatively easy to kill and control. The treatments to get rid of moths should also have no problem eradicating any lice that may be present.
Pediculosis (head lice infestation) – Wisconsin Department of Health Services - Fleas:
Fleas are terrible. When I was younger, my mother attended medical school and we lived in a trailer with three cats. Well, the trailer wasn’t sealed well and we ended up with an infestation of fleas that didn’t end until we moved out. We tried everything…flea-bombing, baths for the cats, professional exterminators…nothing worked. Your best option is to avoid letting fleas get a foothold by keeping items quaratined until you can treat them.
Pest Notes: Fleas – Statewide IPM Program, Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California - Bed Bugs:
Bed bugs are hitchhikers that can be picked up anywhere. They feed on human blood at night just like lice, but they don’t stay attached to the body to digest their meal. Instead they infest nooks and crannies and come out when they are ready to feed.
Bed Bugs – University of Kentucky Entomology - Clothing moths:
There is a multitude of information available about clothes moths online. I have linked to some thorough sources at the bottom of this section. These guys are many fiber artists’ worst nightmares because rather than feeding on people (like fleas, lice, etc) they feed on your stash! The basic things to know about moths are:- Not all moths eat fiber. Clothes moths are a specific subgroup, so don’t worry if you see the occasional moth fluttering around your lights at night!
- They like dark places, contrary to other moth behavior. These moths and their larvae will seek out low-light areas.
- They eat keratin, a protein present in hair and wool,which is why they make holes in wool sweaters. Any natural hair fiber is susceptible to these guys, including cashmere, alpaca, and mohair.
- They are most attracted to areas that have collected sweat or other liquid. Moths don’t drink; they get all of their moisture from the fiber they feed on.
- They have 3 stages: Eggs, larvae, and adults. The larvae are the ones that eat through your clothing and/or fiber. Eggs can be laid near or on the fiber. They hatch and turn into the larvae, which look like little inchworms. The larvae eat and eat, and then they pupate into the adults, which are harmless to your stash except for their egg-laying ability.
- Clothes moth larvae require Vitamin B and various salts as essential nutrients, and these are lacking in completely cleaned wool. Keep things clean and it will be easier to prevent them from breeding.
- These little guys can destroy the integrity of your yarn if you’re not careful, so keep your eyes open if you bring in a lot of fiber! This includes new fiber, especially when bought online. Warehouses are notorious for being low-light environments.
Pest Notes: Clothes Moths – Statewide IPM Program, Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California
Clothes Moths: Identification and Control in the Home – University of Colorado Extension
Quarantine:
This is the most important thing you can do to keep your stash pest-free! Every item you bring home from a thrift store OR from another location (you never know) should go straight into a sealed container. I leave my Goodwill bags in the trunk of my car until I have the time to bring them inside and put them into airtight bags. If you don’t have any, invest in some. A set of medium or large Space Bags is fairly cheap, works with any vacuum with a hose, and will save your butt more times than you can imagine. You can use large Tupperware containers, Ziplock bags, Space Bags, Food Saver, or anything else you can think of. The important thing is to isolate the new acquisitions until you can treat them to remove any potential unwanted hitchhikers.
I would rather spend 5 days doing uneccessary prevention than find out in a year that half of my wool yarn has been eaten into yarnlets and is useless for anything but felting or stuffing.
Treatment:
Fortunately, most of these bugs are relatively easy to control if you haven’t got an infestation yet. I am completely paranoid about bringing moths into my stash on thrift store finds, so every single item I bring home goes straight into a sealed space bag until I can treat it. There are 2 easy, non-chemical ways to treat garments to kill off bugs. All of these suggestions are gathered from sources outside of my own personal experience. I have yet to find infestation on any of my fibers, so I cannot say that any of these methods have worked for me. However, I put everything I bring home from the thrift store through a freezing cycle, and I have yet to find any parasites in my stash!
- Heat:
Heat the garment or fiber at temperatures above 120°F for at least 30 minutes. Check your garment’s tag and decorations before doing this! Garments with certain plastics or other ingredients may be damaged in extreme heat. One user on Ravelry said she heats her thrifted sweaters neatly folded on a cookie sheet in the oven at 200°F for about an hour. During the summer it may be possible to seal items into plastic bags and leave them in your car for a few hours. There are many possibilities for heat-killing bugs; try checking the internet for more options if you’d like! - Freezing:
This is safer for fabrics with some synthetic content or decoration, and less nerve-wracking for paranoid people like me. It helps if you have a chest freezer and a large freezer separate from your refrigerator, but if you set the temp for the fridge low enough you can probably use a fridge/freezer combination. You need to maintain a consistent low temperature; some of the sources I have read say below 32°F and some say below 0°F. I would tend toward 0°F, since most things in a freezer need to be kept well below 32°F to stay solidly frozen anyway. Starting with room temperature garments or fiber, put your items into plastic bags, remove as much air as possible, and seal them. This is important to avoid condensation on the inside of the bags. Then stick them in your freezer for 72 hours. Some people choose to alternate with cycles of freezing, thawing, and re-freezing. This gives any eggs a chance to hatch during the thawing time and re-freezing will kill the larvae.
Dyet Yarns tutorials by Adrian “Nuri” Steinhauer are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
