smell?

[yarnfreak]

I spun up a bunch of roving. It looked great (for my level, anyway). I set the twist, let it dry. All that good stuff. As I'm hanking it, I notice that it smells like, well, wet sheep. It didn't have an odor before I set the twist. I used the stuff in the wash (can't think what it's called). Am I doomed to have stinky yarn? Can I rewet and get the smell out? Any suggestions on how to get the baaaaaad odor from my yarn so I can use it?

[kemp]

I usually put a bit of downy vanilla lavender fabric softener in when I soak the yarn...leaves a great smell!

[dscokween]

so maybe it wasn't all the way dry? If you hang it out in the sun for an afternoon, maybe it will completely dry and get rid of the wet wool smell.

[Silver]

Lots of wool yarns (commercially made too) smell like sheep when wet. The higher the lanolin content, the more it will smell. It usually fades to almost nonexistent when dry, but will return again when wet.

Lanolin is the grease on wool and is what smells, not the wool itself. You can wash the yarn, but removing all of the lanolin is not easy. The water must be very hot to melt the waxy oil, and the higher the temperature, the higher the chance of felting.

Lanolin on wool is actually a good thing because it makes your hand soft as you knit with it, and it gives the finished item a water resistant property. So... my suggestion is to just let the yarn dry.

ps you can also spritz the yarn lightly with a body spray or perfume to mask any odors. I use a lightly scented body spray (Philosophy's Grace perfume) on my yarns.

[yarnfreak]

Yeah, DH says he can't smell anything. Now that it's dry, I really can't either. It just kinda freaked me out a bit. lol