What kind of yarn?

[Montana Mommy]

I picked up several bags of scrap yarn over the summer at garage sales. A lot of it is acryllic, but some of it might be wool. Most of it is all rolled into balls and the orginal labels are long gone, so I have no idea what the fiber content of some of it is.

 

Does anybody know of a "test" that I can do on swatches of the yarn to find out if any of it is wool?

[Niccers]

I think that if you cut off a small piece and burn it, it will smell like burning plastic if its acrylic and burning hair if its wool.

 

Dont hold me to that though.

 

Nic

[cajunwhacko]

My aunt is a knitter and recently got some mystery yarn, she had the same problem. She did a bunch of tests and wrote it up on her blog. Here is the entry for it.

 

Hope it helps some! I'm sure she'd be willing to answer any questions you have too.

[threeolivemartini]

acrylic will melt when burned.. wool will smolder and go ou t..

 

also .. this simple bleach test.. soak some pieces in small dishes.. the woll will disentegrate .. and the acrylic wont..

[swapnae]

Anne, you have a " in your link which is preventing access to it...

[Sharon]

What will cotton do? I got some mystery balls of sock yarn today.

[kayveryn]

i usually burn test... seems pretty accurate to me...

 

if it smells like burnt paper with no hard ball, it's cotton or linen

 

if it leaves a hard ball and smells like fish or plastic it's acrylic, orlon, or polywhatever that is...lol

 

if it smells like hair and leaves a crunchy ash, it's wool or silk

 

if it smells like burning hair and leaves a hard ball, it's a wool acrilyc blend...

 

i've started carrying a lighter in my hook case to test with...lol

 

kayveryn

[Sharon]

Thanks! I figured it out it was Brunswick Pearl, which is 12% cotton. I burned it and although it did hold a flame, it melted. It was a plain white label but it did have codes. I just did a google for "yarn shade"and the number and it came up.

[salos]

Good detective work, Sharon!