Straightening Some Yarn

I knitted through a whole cone of yarn on my current project, and probably won't have enough on the cone to do the button band of the cardigan.

From time to time, I reuse knitted yarn.  It's generally not a great idea to mix straightened yarn and fresh yarn, but if I do the button band with all straightened yarn, there won't be a variation in the finished knitted texture.  Lots of people take apart sweaters to unravel or unravel unfinished projects and reuse the yarn by straightening it with steam.

You can buy gadgets for this, but you don't need a gadget.  I just use my stove and a pan of water.  The water boils in the pan, the lid is propped up with two silicone spatulas.  You could use wooden spoons, or whatever you have.

It works best to unravel and rewind into kinkly little balls first, then do the steaming from a nicely untangled ball.  Then you run the yarn under the lid and into the yarn winder.  Wind the yarn into a ball S L O W L Y, and you've got nicely straightened, ready-to-use yarn.