How Do You Reskein Yarn Thats Been Caked

First, don't panic! It tin can be frustrating equally all get out when you either realize that you take dye on your hands from working with your yarn or you go to cake a project and the colors run. But we take had both happen, and we are here to help! Let's start past talking nearly vocabulary...

CROCKING VS BLEEDING

Crocking. This is when just a footling bit of dye comes off on your hands as you are working. If you are a fan of lotion or just take naturally moisture-rich skin, you might have noticed this happening. Normally, the dye is fix just fine on your yarn, and your hand is just alluring very pocket-size amounts of dye. More probable than not, your project volition not bleed or rub off on to anything.
Bleeding. This is more farthermost, and there are 3 master causes.

Excess Dye: At that place is merely so much dye the fiber tin can absorb and when it reaches that signal, the rest has nowhere to become. So information technology just sits in that location waiting to rub off on things.
Improperly Gear up Dye: This is an issue of the dye non being prepare in the fiber. Information technology will expect like excess dye but no amount of rinsing will help because the dye isn't actually bonded to the yarn (however).
Water Condition: Nosotros are talking the chemistry of difficult water vs soft here, and it changes depending on where you live and if you take a water softener. If something was set in hard water it will drain in soft water and vice versa. It simply will.

WHAT DO I DO?

Your next step depends on a few things. Take a snip of your yarn and soak it in water. How much does the water colour change?

Just a little

This might be as elementary as a bit of excess dye. After the dyeing procedure, yarn is typically rinsed until the water is clear. For larger batches or those rushed for fourth dimension, this may not have been washed quite thoroughly for your item color. There should be no reason not to just carry on with your project with the knowledge that the excess dye will rinse out merely fine when y'all cake.
Colorwork involved? Even a little actress dye can be an issue if the bleeding color is next to white. It should be ok if it's just a fiddling and if y'all don't soak the finished object for an extended time when blocking it. To eliminate the adventure, though, you lot can frog your project, re-skein the offending colour, then rinse it thoroughly to remove the actress dye earlier working with it.

It's BAD.

Try washing your garments (or yarn) in filtered or distilled h2o. If your problem is the hard water vs soft water issue, this hopefully will resolve the result. Our favorite anecdote comes from Twistedista Anny who has a friend who uses the garden hose for h2o to block her knitwear because it is the only spigot not hooked upwards to the water softener!
If the above doesn't work, it's time to prepare the dye again. For this, you need vinegar AND hot water. Prepare a bowl of hot water and then add together a good glug of vinegar. Dunk the yarn and leave information technology overnight. Rinse and squeeze out the backlog h2o and let it dry out.

THE Lesser LINE

Crocking in yarn is not reason for concern. It is similar to buying a dark pair of blue jeans where the blueish rubs off. Haemorrhage, though more serious, can also be overcome with some patience and knowledge. Twistedista Anny suggests using a laundry dye catcher when blocking or washing to assistance capture any excess dye.

Twistedista Elinor simply went through this upshot with her latest sweater, One time and Floral by Maxim Cyr. After some heart stopping moments while blocking, information technology turns out that the white is now gray. Not ideal but far from a total tragedy. The finished object is nevertheless stunning!

in progress blocking close up blocked