When I first started spinning I was so anxious to use the yarns I created that I would set right to work knitting or weaving without giving a moment of thought to the fact that it might be a good idea to wash the yarns before using them. I’d just wind the yarns into a ball right off the bobbin and start in on a project. Needless to say, those projects show areas of over twist, areas of under twist and biasing. Looking for ways to improve the final outcome of my projects, I decided that there just might be something to the process called “finishing” after all and gave it a try. What a difference.

First, wet finishing yarns gives the yarn an opportunity to relax. The fibers composing a yarn are stretched during processing and spinning and a good wet finish allows the individual fibers to revert to their natural state. Crimp and elasticity return to the fibers and twist inserted during spinning relaxes and evens itself out over the length of the yarn. Note that loose skein ties should be used during wet finishing to allow the twist to even out over the greatest distance possible.
I like to wet finish my yarns by giving them an overnight soak n warm water with a bit of Dawn Dishwashing Detergent. This allows the fibers to become throughly saturated and gives plenty of time for the individual fibers to relax and for the twist to equalize. I rinse the wet skeins and then give them a gentle squeeze and roll them in a towel to remove excess moisture before hanging them to dry.

Exactly how a particular yarn should be wet finished depends on how the yarn was spun, the type of fiber in the yarn, and the end purpose.

Woolen spun yarns need a bit of fulling in the finishing process so a bit of rough handling is in order. A bit of agitation with a toilet plunger (kept for the purpose of finishing yarn) helps with this process. Simply “plunge” the yarn a bit while it is in the finishing bath. Then, when the wet yarn is ready to hang to dry, whap the skeins against a wall or a counter top, working completely around the skein so all sides receive an even number of whacks. The whacking process raises the bit of nap on the surface which helps make woolen yarns warmer.

Worsted spun yarns need gentler handling. To keep them smooth and even, do not agitate the finishing bath - just allow the yarns to soak. Once the yarns is ready to dry, snap the skeins between your hands to keep everything nice and even and smooth. No whacking required.

Cotton yarns should be boiled with some dishwashing detergent to remove any dirt still left in the fibers. The yarn may be boiled on the spinning bobbins provided that you have boil proof bobbins. Lacking boil proof bobbins PVC pipe makes a good substitute - drill holes into the PVC pipe, wind the yarn on and boil it. Cotton is inelastic so yarns may be dried by winding off of the bobbin or PVC pipe and onto a reel.

Silk yarns need a lot of snapping of the wet skeins and whacking to finish them. While it seems so harsh to treat silk this way, this is what brings out the luster of the silk.

Yarns that halo such as mohair and angora should be handled very carefully for wet finishing as handling these yarns tends to raise the halo. While the halo is a beautiful thing in finished projects, it can easily get in the way of actually making the project. The fibers of the halo catch against each other making correcting any errors in the project much, much harder to fix.

In general, yarns for knitting or crocheting should not be dried under tension. Drying under tension stretches the yarns and, the first time the yarn gets wet, it will relax back to it’s natural unstretched state and the finished project will appear to have shrunk.

Yarns for weaving should be dried under tension as woven fabric is generally wet finished after the fabric has been woven.