How to Soften Red Heart Yarn Super Saver

In this video I talk about softening Red Heart Yarn. I made a baby blanket with Red Heart Jumbo Bon Bon and felt it was too stiff and scratchy.
two videos I mentioned
Red Heart Review
Thermal Stitch Blanket

Steps to Soften Red Heart
Soak in cold water 20 minutes (sink or tub)
Add 1/4 cup of vinegar water (double if in tub)
Hand was in cold water with shampoo TWICE
Fully Saturate with Conditioner (any brand will do)
Let sit for 10 minutes out of water
Soak in ICE COLD water for an hour
Rinse out ALL conditioner, very well
Run through your washer in lightest setting (in pillowcase if want)
Throw in Dyer with dryer sheets
Dry until damp, to lay flat to dry or block

[KristaMcLeran]

If you wash your item in the washer on delicate in cold water with a TBSP of vinegar in the detergent compartment and then a TBSP of vinegar in the softener compartment and then dry on lowest setting with only wool dryer balls, no dryer sheets, it comes out stupid soft. All natural. No chemicals.

[susannealcrochets]

I just completed a huge project with Craft Smart yarn. It was God awful scratchy. I washed on delicate with Woolite and fabric softener. Dried on low and came out super soft. I do all my projects this way no matter yarn.

[SpiralBreeze]

I use Super Saver all the time, all I do is wash it with a bit extra softener when finished. If it's too soft it'll be too loose and lose it's stitch definition and get super ratty looking. I purposely use this yarn so projects look brand new for years to come. I knit stuff back when I was 5 years old in 1990 and it still looks brand new.

[sharonmarks]

When I finish a project in Red Heart, my husband throws it in the washer with lots of fabric softener. Then he puts it in the dryer. When it is dry it is super soft. I love Super Saver from Red Heart.

[StarlingofAzerath]

Everyone is like "why go through all that trouble" yea for a baby blanket that size the savings may not be significant for the effort. But if you make bigger blankets or oversized sweaters, the cost of using higher quality yarn starts to get steep. And softer yarn may mean more pilling and may end up falling apart sooner. So its a give and take depending on yarn yardage and utility

[kayceegreer]

You actually can leave the vinegar alone, use warm or hot water in a gentle cycle and simply put fabric softener in the wash cycle, stop it before the rinse cycle THAT'S RIGHT - NO RINSE, change it to spin out and THEN dry it 10 -15 min on perm press and it will feel like Caron simply soft or Lion brand or any other wonderfully luxurious soft expensive per ounce yarn. I've been doing it for 20 years and saving money!

The reason it works is: yarn is a cellulose changed by petrochemical treatment - not talkin' 'bout wool/animal fuzz, just synthetic fibers- thus it is oleophilic.

Machine grease and machine lubricants that inevitably fly around as a mist in a shop full of machinery are also petrochems. That and the lint is what causes Brown Lung Disease, much like Black Lung from coaldust. All of the above.. that's right, oleophilic.

Fabric softener as well as hand creams, face lotions, potions, hair conditioners, etcetera are... you guessed it! Oleophilic because they all have petrochems in then ( I'm talking main stream on the store shelf stuff not special health food store boutique shop stuff).
By the way, if you don't know and have not hit Google yet to find out what oleophilic means, it means oil-loving; oils are attracted to one another because of their molecular structure and other Science-y words.

I was in fashion design and we had fabric industry classes from creation to product to wear-n-tear to care, even laundering and dry cleaning of all fibers and fabrics known to man and beast. This is education and experience talking here: The way I described above will cut the machine grease and lubricant out because the way fabric softener is made, molecular weight and tension, being lower will penetrate the filaments/yarn and the grease being heavier molecular weight with higher surface tension will float away with water and excess softener upon spin cycle. You see, other synthetics like polyester cannot accept moisture but acrylic (rayon too) can, because it started as a cellulose - a wood or plant fiber. Heavier molecular weight oils with higher surface tension cannot penetrate it so it will be cut by the softener itself - you don't even need soap or vinegar, you just need a concentrated softener and use plenty of it, and warm to hot water helps it penetrate and soften; every other way you've described is horrendously labor-intensive and, to my experienced ear, a lot of bother and wasted money and time.

Of course if someone has allergies are sensitive skin, soaps - which are rendered from fat, oil, grease and may even have lanolin in it which comes from sheep or other animal body oil, will work if you're used to that And it has worked so far for other things but it may deposit a different waxy residue and encapsulate the machine grease or lubricants, so it seems I should say "detergent is the way to go" it will cut oil, degrease- I know, how does oil cut oil ? well, once again, it's all about molecular weights and surface tension-

Anyway soap ( If it is an all natural kind with eucalyptus or tea tree oil in significant enough amounts it may work or add essential oil to it)/ or especially detergent to wash away the film and then use the wash cycle to get warm or hot water and (hypoallergenic?) softener sans (without) fragrances and warm or hot water rinse and spin and then tumble dry as I said above and nobody skin should be irritated after that.
*** Hot water should never be used on fancy yarns like eyelash or anything that resembles a pompom or any kind of fuzz ball because if the crinkle in the filament is altered by your water heater temp setting, your yarn will lose its "loft", and "hand" (fluffiness and draping quality), and pompoms will shed and flatten So make sure your water heater thermostat is set in the mid range they are usually indicated on the valve/ knob /handle.
*** This advice is only for cheap continuous strand yarn softening - no fancy yarns allowed for this procedure unless it is in warm water, gentle cycle, low heat dryer settings, or no more than 10-15 min on perm press dry cycle depending on size of item. It is advisable if using the warmer setting of permanent press, that you may need to take out larger items re-fluff them and put them back in so the wetter parts that got rolled up to the interieur of the wad will get dry equally well.

[katibere]

I just washed a child’s poncho made with Red Heart Super Saver ... put it in a mesh laundry bag with detergent (Tide) and softener (Downey) and then put it in dryer. It came out PERFECT!!! 🧶🧶🧶😊

[conniefendley]

Gees, so much work. I was taught to knit and crochet by my 4th grade teacher. I'm now 64. Lol. Imagine the Red Heart I've been through. I have always just washed with Tide (laundry detergent snob) with Downey (fabric softener snob) lol, dry on low and it has never failed me. Now, I've just learned that you can steam your projects and that works as well. I've just finished a poncho for one of my granddaughters and I'm gonna try that just out of curiosity. Yarns have come a long way in 50 years. Save yourself all that work (unless you have too much time on your hands) and buy a softer yarn. Oh, you can always throw skeins in a pillow case and was as described before you get to your project. That works too. Just a tip from an oldie but goodie!! Love your videos by the way. Keep up all your hard work work. It is appreciated by all of us.

[LoneStarSportsLedger]

Thank you!!!! I just started a mini business selling the items I crochet and was all happy to find "Super Saver Yarn" because it was cheap and long. 2 minutes into my first sweater i could feel the toughness ("super saver" shouldve been my warning ha ha jk) I was hoping to find a video that fixed this problem to save me from spending tons of the super soft, pricier yarn. This helped a bunch! Thank you!

[lorainecomerford]

KayceeGree had the simplest method. Put in washer with cap full of fabric softener, do not rinse then dry on med to low heat. Worked like a charm on an afghan made with Super Saver yarn that would have been too difficult to soak in a bathtub. Thank you KayceeGree!

[Rennagayle]

I always hated the scratchy Red Heart afghans my mother made back in the day. As a result, I've made a point to steer clear of it since taking up knitting and crocheting. I was one of those given a bag of Red Heart yarns by someone who's grandmother had probably passed. Knowing I was a knitter, they just knew I'd be thrilled, and I wasn't about to let on otherwise. I knit a pair of fingerless mitts last fall, then soaked them in a bowl of water with a few capfuls of cheap hair conditioner. I then tied them inside a pillowcase and tossed it in the dryer with a load of towels. I was utterly amazed at how soft they came out. I've done that a few times since with the same results. I have not made anything as big as a blanket, though. I'm happy to learn about the vinegar trick! 👍🏻

Like you, I was pleasantly surprised with a hat I recently knit from the Red Heart self-striping yarn, a purchase I deliberately made!

[jannetteanderson]

I've used RH SS & presently using RH Comfort yarn. Yes it is coarse to work with but here is what I've done in the past & it works totally AWESOME. Once the project is completed I place it in my washing machine using cold water either on delicate or hand wash for about 20 min or more using a little laundry soap & about 1 C vinegar or your cheapest hair conditioner. This way it goes through all the fibers in the yarn & NO the vinegar will NOT HARM your washing machine & NO the project WILL NOT smell like vinegar. Plus vinegar cleans out the build up of crap on the inside of the hoses in your washer. I bet most of you don't know but fabric softeners have a form of wax in the ingredients...………...have you ever noticed how a dryer sheet feels prior to placing in the I used vinegar in my washing machine vice softeners, plus I run my dishwasher once a month with vinegar. Vinegar has been around for hundreds of yrs plus its a disinfectant. Try it out & you'll see. This Canadian gal would not steer you

[dananola]

This works. I forgot the fabric softener but I bought everything from Dollar Tree and did an entire Afghan in the bathtub. 20 for each step (except no fabric softener) and the blanket is lovely and soft. I might switch back to Red Heart ❤️ from Hobby Lobby's yarn because of the lower price since I know that I can make it feel the same! Thank you so much for posting this.

[sophievanderbilt]

Nice video! A lot of ppl (like myself!) have inherited this scratchy type of yarn from their grandparents or neighbors or what not. I don't want to throw it out, so a video like this is really great!

[frugalandfiber]

Red Heart has improved A LOT. I had some vintage that was BAD compared too modern red heart.

[pratyt]

Thanks for your video, very interesting. I also found the comments interesting too. I've always used red heart and had good luck with it. Some colors do seem to be more scratchy but they all wash up softer. I use fabric softener every time. Another plus of red heart is the colors stay true and it keeps looking great. I think it may have changed from the yarn of years ago when the afghans seemed to always be stiff and scratchy.

[ArtByKarenEHaley]

Beautiful blanket! I’ll watch your tutorial. Softening that scratchy yarn can be tricky. My grandma made a blanket for my son with super saver and she just washed it with vinegar and a little fabric softener. Then when it was dry I added a small amount of baby lotion to my hands and worked it into the whole blanket. It’s soooo nice to touch and because I used the kind of lotion he was used to, the scent would relax him. You have to know the baby is not allergic to the lotion you put on the blanket but the result is worth it👍

[squirrel]

I agree with you. A LOT of work. Thanks for sharing the info, there's some cool chemistry and physics happening with these steps. Imo, the TIME I would have to spend to follow these steps just to soften rough yarn is more expensive and valuable than all the other materials combined.

[Jessd]

I have a bag full of super saver that I was about to get rid of, so I'm glad I found this. I knitted with it and I was like OMG this is terrible and scratchy lol. Maybe I'll be able to use it after all.

[marcitucker]

You were absolutely right and I did the whole thing in the washing machine on the hand wash cycle and I added an additional soak cycle put vinegar in there but the fabric softener in went in during the wash cycle and put it in the conditioner I didn’t even work it into the blanket like you said I just put a whole bottle of conditioner in there I had to rinse it twice but then once I put them in the dryer and put them out they were so soft you rock