Should I Straighten Frogged Yarn?

Before we get in to how to straighten used yarn that has been frogged or ripped back from a knitted or crocheted project, you might be wondering “do I have to straighten the yarn?”, or “does it really matter if I just re-knit or re-crochet the ripped back yarn?”

The answer:

Yes it matters! Not only am I going to show you how to straighten that wibbly-wobbly, kinky yarn ready to reuse it, I will also show you the difference it makes when you put that effort in compared to when you don’t.

A small caveat:

If you only just knitted or crocheted the fabric that you have ripped back, the kinks may drop out quickly on their own. If that is the case, you can just bookmark this page, ready for when you have kinky yarn you want to reclaim.

What I am talking about here is yarn that has been in fabric form and the kinks are ‘set in’. See the first image below for what this looks like.

Here is what I cover in this blog post:

Preparing frogged yarn
Washing frogged yarn
Drying frogged yarn
Difference between washed and unwashed frogged yarn
Is it worth washing frogged yarn?

Preparing Frogged Yarn For Straightening

The chances are that as you frog the knitted or crocheted project, you will be balling it up. To properly straighten out the frogged yarn it needs to be in a skein format. I have used a swift, but you can just as easily use the back of a dining chair.

Ball of frogged yarn with a swatch showing how uneven the unstraightened yarn knits up. — The unblocked swatch shows how uneven the knitted fabric is if the yarn isn’t straightened.

Frogged yarn being skeined on yarn swift. — Skeining up the yarn is essential for washing and drying the yarn under tension.

Partially frogged jumper with frogged yarn in skein — Use the tail ends to secure the skein loops ready for washing.

Once the balled yarn is skeined up, tie loose figure of eight knots through the middle and outside of the skein with the two tail ends. This will help to keep structure in the skein and stop it from becoming a tangled mess in the water.

In case you have never partially ripped back a knitted item to a specific point, I recommend watching this video on How to Frog Your Knitting and Fix Mistakes’ by Bold Cotton Knitting.

This may be particularly helpful if you love to buy second hand yarns or garments to unravel. You may find my blog “Tips for Second Hand Yarn Shopping” helpful to read.

For crochet, it is much easier because you can just pull your stitches back to the live loop at the point where you want to keep your existing crocheted fabric.

Washing Frogged Yarn

Once the tinked yarn has been skeined up, it should be submerged in warm water with or without wool wash, the choice is yours.

I left this skein in the water for a couple of hours to allow the yarn to relax as much as possible. You can see how much of the kink has been taken out just with water in the image on the right.

Frogged yarn hovering over a large bowl of soapy water. — Submerge the skein in warm water so the kinks start to relax out of the yarn.

Me wringing out a skein of frogged yarn. — Squeeze and wring all the excess water out of the yarn before hanging it to dry.

Remove the skein from the water, holding it at the top of the skein. Using your other hand, gently squeeze excess water out of the skein by squeezing from the top of the skein all the way to the bottom.

Repeat this until most of the water has been squeezed from the skein. I then doubled the skein over and gently wrung more water out of it.

Drying Frogged Yarn

I think that this is the most critical part of the process because you don’t just dry the skein of yarn flat, you have to hang it under tension to really pull the remaining kinks out of the yarn.

I used a larks knot on the skein to hang it from our clothes horse. If you think there is still a lot of water in the skein, place the bowl underneath to catch any drips.

Here’s the really important part. You will see that the yarn most likely still has ‘memory’ of the stitches and is still uneven and wavy. To completely straighten out the yarn, it needs to dry under tension.

Skein of yarn hanging on a clothes horse with a larks knot.

Skein of yarn hung on clothes horse with tine of tomatoes to add tension as it dries.

I used a tin of tomatoes because it felt like a good weight to tension the yarn with. It also meant I could spread the strands of the skein across the length of the tin, helping the full skein to remain under tension. You may want to add another tin if your skein is bigger or a heavier weight of yarn.

Difference Between Washed and Unwashed Frogged Yarn

The best way to prove that the effort of straightening frogged yarn before you knit or crochet with it again is to show you my swatches.

Knitted swatch of frogged yarn that hasn't been washed. — Blocked swatch of re-knitted yarn that hasn’t been washed and straightened.

Knitted swatch of frogged yarn that has been washed. — Blocked swatch of re-knitted yarn that has been washed and straightened.

Both of the images above show swatches that have been gently blocked. The left swatch is very uneven and was re-knitted with yarn that came straight from the frogged jumper.

The swatch on the right was re-knitted with frogged yarn that was prepared, washed, dried under tension and straightened back out. The swatch is much more even and representative of the kind of fabric you would get from a skein of virgin yarn.

Is It Worth Washing Ripped Back Yarn?

Yes, if you want to reuse yarn from an old project, this method will restore the yarn. Washing and drying frogged yarn to straighten it out is worth the effort and will lead to a more even knitted or crocheted fabric.

It doesn’t take that long and might make the difference between you being happy with a finished project and using it versus relegating it to the back of a cupboard or even having to frog it – again!

I love a short cut, but using frogged yarn straight from a project isn’t a short cut I will ever take.

Fay x