Yarn - unlike people - blossoms with violence.

I thought I was thwacking my fiber on the counter because it was fun (Which it totally is. Lowers my blood pressure too), but it turns out there's a whole lot more to it than that.

The end result isn't quite dry, so the yardage is a mystery, but I adore this yarn.  The llama gives it drape and silkiness and the beat down gave it cohesion.  All the loops are quietly laid side by side in orderly beauty, not resisting their fate.  It's a wonder.  I want to reskein when its dry, but it might break my heart to untie and disrupt it.

Awaiting a soggy fate.

Hello gorgeous.

If you're curious about why you might want to domestically abuse your handspun, click these following images for big and drag them side by side (also imagine that they were taken in good light.  Sorry about the flash glare.)

and look at the article in this month's Spin Off - which I have not yet seen, but in which Judith Mackenzie McCuin says....how to wet finish your yarn.

I expect there's a lot of variation by fiber type and I expect I will learn it all the hard way, as is my habit.  But I'll take the whole idea a lot more seriously.   

Now, if I only have enough.....how can 39 ounces not be a sweater?

Comments

[anne]

hmm. i just can't picture the plunger method; i keep seeing the rounded part slipping off the yarn.

out of sheer laziness, i've been washing my skeins in the washer ever since i started spinning. a good soak in a pan of water and soap, then into mesh bags and the handwash cycle. the spinout is more-or-less the equivalent of your thwacking. it really makes the skeins bloom and settle into a nice even distribution. when i pull them out i put my hands inside the hank (like a cat's cradle) and snap them hard to straighten them well before hanging.

but i might take up the backyard thwacking yet . . . there is a certain cave-woman image it brings to mind that is appealing too. and i could use the exercise . . .

[Sonya]

Yarn bloom is one of those beautiful natural occurences right up there with coral spawning.

[Andrea]

That is beautiful! You have made me believe in handspun again.

[Beth S.]

In both the article and the new book, JMM advocates keeping a little plunger (for yarn only) handy and actually using it on your poor, innocent, soaking yarn. Wild! But it apparently gives excellent results. Your yarn, for instance, looks so much nicer now--soft and squishy but also robust. :-)

[Octopus Knits]

Your thwacked yarn does look gorgeous.

[chris]

Oooooh, I LOVE thwacking my handspun yarn when I wash it! Great therapy, that.

Also, that yarn is beautiful -- I love the color!

[Marcy]

Yarn abuse is a wonderful thing. :D And if you do it Judith's way, you get to use a plunger. How cool is that??

[Laurie]

WOW. That's a testament to the *thwack*. Good post.

[vicki]

If your yarn is going to look that good keep whacking it! it is a great colour.