[martimac57]

Dear KP Friends,
I have a mess on my hands and a delima. I had a fire in my. Home and is the time for. Clean out and clean up. I found a stash of various yarns thay. Wwere in a clopset. The yarn is in great shape but the delima, it smells of smoke. How do I get the smell out?

 

[littlemissxmas]

Put them in a tote or in a closet and put a half an apple in a bowl leave it in there for a day or two. I hear that works in cars and things.
The only other thing I can think of is go to a tobacco store and get a smoke candle. Burn it for a little while in a closed room blow it out but leave the top off the jar.

 

[YorkieMama]

I am so sorry that you even have to think about all this. I hope and pray that you and your family made it out of the house without physical injury.

Many years ago, when my home burned, the clean up crew put all the clothes and things that would absorb odors in a sealed area and ran an ozone machine in the area. That helped with the worst of the odors. I would also suggest putting your yarn, once you have inspected it for soot, in a sealed container with a couple large, open containers of baking soda.

 

[Martha French]

I have found a site which offers some good advice. I tried to recapture the site to check if the link worked, it did for me, so here goes -

http://www.knitting-crochet.com/odo.html

It suggests listerine, so I must try it on cat smells.

Now the spelling checker is telling me I have made a spelling mistake so I walked down to the bathroom to check the spelling on the bottle and according to the bottle on the hand basin cabinet, Listerine is correct.

 

[Jessica-Jean]

I've had odor problems with things bought in second-hand stores, yarn included. I just hang it outside out of direct sunlight and leave it there for as long as it takes to lose the stench. In the case of smoke, a few weeks did the trick. In the case of a plastic mug that my mother had stored those car air-fresheners shaped (and smelling) like pine trees, it took two years before it could be used for drinking coffee!

I have bought balls of cotton Speed-Cro-Sheen that appeared to have been smoke-and-water damaged. I just worked it as usual. I had thought that the dark marks from the fire would wash out of the gold-coloured thread; it did not. It doesn't matter though; they're potholders, and will likely become burned in the long run anyway.

 

[Stablebummom]

I bought some yarn at a thrift store and didn't see the dirt/stains on it til I got home. Well, thinking what did I have to lose at 50 cents, I put the skein in a knee high stocking, rubber banded it closed and also put a couple along the length of my yarn sausage. I washed it in the sink in dish soap and it cleaned up very well. Getting braver I tossed it in the machine with a load of whites and it came out VERY clean and no odor. I hung it outside to dry and turned it several times to make sure it dried completely. Maybe this will work for you if the yarn is not wool. I would imagine the hand wash would work for wool though. Good luck and I'm sorry to hear about your fire.

 

[skinny minnie]

I would also wash and hang outside, not in direst sunlight. Jessica Jean, a tip for getting odours out of plastic etc. Put into freezer

 

[faithphoenix]

I agree with Jessica-Jean, sunlight is the ultimate deodorizer!

 

[martimac57]

Wow, leave it to my friends at KP to come through again. Thank you ever so much.

 

[jujee]

One of the things I like to use to get bad odors out of things is carcoal (the kind you BBQ with). Put the yarn in a large tub with lid with a lid, put the carcoal in a bowl set it on top of the yarn, put the lid on and leave for about a week. This is how I got the smoke smell out of a cashmere sweater that I purchased at a fire sale.

 

[cathie02664]

I know that liquid peppermint soap will get rid of smoke, that's what firemen/women use themselves.

 

[Dsynr]

Are you a firefighter?

I know that liquid peppermint soap will get rid of smoke, that's what firemen/women use themselves.

 

[cathie02664]

I am not a fireman. There are firemen in my family.

 

[cathie02664]

I am not a fireman. There are many in my family.

 

[lannieb]

I have heard of charcoal before, but never Peppermint soap. sounds logical though.

 

[Cindy M]

I didn't have a lot of this yarn, but I did have some that smelled like cigarette smoke. I quit smoking six months ago and boy, I can tell the smell now. It's very strong and unpleasant when you smell it on others that smoke. I decided to do a yarn cleaning out last week and put it in the trash. I feel better about it. I just felt that it wasn't worth my time trying to wash and dry it and deal with it. Besides, this gives me an excuse to go to the yarn store now.

 

[crystalrose]

You may need to wash it several times. A few years ago, my washer caught fire (a Maytag!). I was doing a load of towels at the time and they smelled so bad my husband complained. I kept washing them every week and after several times through the washer there was finally no more smoke smell. Of course with yarn you would probably want to hand wash.

 

[jeanbess]

I heard that charcoal in abag with the yarn

 

[mookiedlite]

Hi, I smoke, so I have a problem with smokey yarn. I put my knitted items in a plastic bag with a good smelling candle for about a week. It worked really well. My next step is to stop smoking. Hope you find something to work.

 

[martimac57]

Thank you. I would not have thought of scented candles.