"Strangled" donated yarn

Second question on donated yarn.

Quite a bit of the donated yarn was wrapped into balls so tightly that I can see crimps in the yarn.

What's the opinion on my just rewrapping the yarn into loose center-pull balls without steaming?

meerka, I think that the Vogue Knitting book or perhaps Knitting Workshop talks about recycling yarn from old sweaters- which would be similarly mangled - but it may have involved steaming. I think it involved loose hanks and hanging a weight from them to pull out kinks.

I would imagine overwound balls are less of a problem especially if you start your loose balls from the outside of the ball (essentially turning them inside out then tight outside part will be on the loose inside part).

I find wool particularly forgiving and if it is just for students to start learning wouldn't worry too much about it.

meerka, are you sure you didn't get some of my mother-in-law's stash when she died? This all sounds so familiar ...

Ma wound her unused yarn into VERY TIGHT balls, like she was afraid it would escape or something.

Some yarn relaxed when I wound it loosely. Some didn't.

The stuff that didn't relax got made up into cat mats, donated to the day care, or used to tie up tomatoes or something.

Throwing yarn way is the Eighth Deadly Sin, I realize, but sometimes you just have to give up.

In my experience, all that steaming of recycled yarn is a great big waste of time. I did that once, and said to heck with it. The next recycled project, I simply unraveled the vest, wound into a loose ball, and let it sit for awhile. I didn't find the end result much different.

Haven't run into a project yet that you could tell the difference.

I am doing i really cool recycled yarn progect. I found scraps in art and now im detangeling and i have SO much I think i might make a scarf.