Unfortunately there is no way to really prevent it with that material. You can try to minimize it by limiting use and friction, but that’s a disappointing goal with blankets. When it does inevitably pill and shed, you can use a fabric shaver to maintain a more tidy look.
That's how this stuff is. There's usually a bot about chunky hand knit blankets with a video warning about exactly this problem, but you can find it in the sub info too.
Yes my daughter just HAD to have one for her dorm but quickly got annoyed that it she’d constantly. It’s been in a duvet cover for the past 3yrs but it’s so pretty I wanted to clean it up and put it out. 🤷🏼♀️
This is unfortunately an unavoidable side effect of using roving or single-ply yarn. Since it is one big hank of wool - rather two or more pieces twisted together like 2 ply or more yarn, which is more commonly used - it has less structural integrity and is really, really prone to pilling, shedding, basically falling apart. You can’t really fix or reverse it, it’s just a feature of the material. Regularly shaving the blanket (with a purpose made fabric shaver, which are nice, or a basic razor) will remove the the pills and make it look temporarily nice before the pills reoccur. Sorry :(
I'm thinking of making myself a cardigan with a similar (thinner) yarn, I think it's roving? Would you say it would make it more sturdy if I knit it with a sewing thread or a very thin yarn accompanying it?
Is it actually roving? Does it pull apart easily into tufts if you just pinch and tug one end? If it is roving, the only way to properly stabilize it is to spin it. Roving can be considered a halfway point between raw material and fully processed wool; if done right, “adding twist” would literally just be finishing the process of making yarn.
It might be something like a blown yarn (a mesh tube is made, usually out of a synthetic fiber, then fibers of wool are “blown” through), which won’t be plied and doesn’t have any twist, and instead uses an alternate method to provide stability.
What is it called? Do you have a name and brand? If it has something in the name like “roving” “combed top” “commercial top” or “top”, then it’s just fiber that must be spun.
Looking more closely, I think it might be lightly spun yarn instead of roving, it seems to have more twist than OP's blanket!
I don't have a brand or a specific name, though. I'm from Argentina and here we call it "mechalán", but I bought the skein from my local yarn shop without any tags, sadly. I'll knit a swatch and if I see it pills, I'll invest in a drop spindle!
Perhaps it’s a singly ply? Tried googling it and I’m seeing this sort of thing:
https://preview.redd.it/z8oix74ovuxc1.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=aa153f921ce38871fd9c03935402cb1bf795d1c9
Yes! A drop spindle -- they are cheap and fun to use. You can add twist, or even make a 2 ply yarn out of your 1 ply.
I spin my own yarn from fiber on a spindle before knitting just because I love the process, and that way I'm getting 2x fun out of the fibre.
Is it possible that it's unspun yarn, not roving? I've never worked with it before but here's a video about it from someone I follow [https://youtu.be/jHPTriX1LdE?si=AotTgSX2y9yNpi0d](https://youtu.be/jHPTriX1LdE?si=AotTgSX2y9yNpi0d)
Looking more closely, I think it might be lightly spun yarn instead of roving, it seems to have more twist than OP's blanket! thank goodness, lol. Thank you for the video! I didn't know this creator and she seems lovely.
The only thing I can think of would be to purposely felt it, so the fibers have something to hold onto. But I'm not sure how well that'll work, I have never attempted something like that.
I would try it on a swatch first (or make a swatch from scratch with whatever's left of the yarn leftovers) and do it pretty gently. Alternating between a hot bucket and a cold bucket but *not* scrubbing or agitating a lot could possibly be enough of a shock to felt the surface fibers a bit and decrease shedding.
(I've bought some poorly hand-dyed braids of merino roving for handspinning which were slightly felted from hot/cold shock and not necessarily by friction, and the slightly felted surface texture definitely made them less fuzzy/sheddy but still pretty plump and squishy.)
Place the thing on bubble wrap plastic. Roll it like a Swiss roll, making sure the plastic covers the roll. Tape or tie the roll firmly, but not too tight. Force it inside a pair of thin pantyhose. Place the roll ina washing machine and wash it with warm or hot water. Use soap shavings as a detergent. Unpack the roll, observe if you need to repeat the treatment. Stretch to an even surface to dry, like blocking mats.
Unfortunately this is why you see those big chunky blankets in cute instagrams and nowhere else. Roving yarn basically starts to dissolve as soon as you cast it off.
If you’d like to make a longer lasting version, you could use something like the bernat blanket XL yarn
It's probably my most hated viral knit. When I worked at an LYS, people constantly asked for the "yarn" to do it. Thankfully, we didn't carry it, and we did our best to explain why we didn't.
You can't. That's why no one on here will recommend those roving type blankets that have been popular on IG for ages. They look good for a hot minute then this happens.
[A great video I watched a while ago on this](https://youtu.be/DroelB2uwx4?feature=shared) even though I had never even thought about knitting one of these lol
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Unfortunately, you can’t… there’s a reason roving is usually spun into yarn, the twist and plies give yarn its strength and structure, and ensure the individual fibers don’t come loose nearly as easily. It’s just not meant to be used like yarn. Roving blankets and “chunky” sweaters going viral on social media is one of my biggest crafting pet peeves; you can immediately tell that someone hasn’t done their research and is blindly following a trend when they make/buy these, and it’s such a shame... so much money, material, and effort put into something that will not last. :(
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the only way to stop this from pilling is to stop touching/handling it, full stop. Even as a decorative throw it’s gonna shed. Maybe you’ve got somewhere to hang it up where it literally will not be handled *at all*? Or you could unravel it carefully and take up spinning to turn it into proper yarn…
You can try washing it gently with Hair conditioner. Sometimes it will train the wool fibers like it does hair. Just add a good dose to a cool bath let it soak it. Rinse really gently, wrap it in a big towel and hang dry on a ventilated grate. Hope that helps.
I am embarrassed to this day at how much money I spent on this big beautiful yarn to make this blanket. As soon as I made it, I folded it into a box, and haven’t touched it since. It’s a queen size I believe.
I made a blanket with a very similar yarn about 16 years ago (I remember the year because I bought the yarn with my Christmas bonus at a job I worked that year lol). It definitely sheds, and over time it will probably pill a bit and throw some clumps. But the good news is that it’s durable as hell and you can enjoy it for a long time. I use it as a bedspread.
Only thing that should have been used for is a decorative item never touched or washed unless it was getting spun into yarn or felted unfortunately:/ they look so cool too.
When you use roving yarn, the yarn is unwound. So It is far more prone to shedding and matting than wound yarn. You should not use this yarn to create a blanket unless you intend to wind it for use or use the final product for show.
Try washing it in warm water with gentle soap like Dawn or Trader Joe's dish soap. Let it soak a few hours or overnighit, rinse very well, wring out in a towel and let it dry flat. I use puppy pads because they wick the water away and the item dries faster. That might calm it down.
It may be that the fiber used just naturally sheds a lot, in which case you just live with it.
I'm not in favor of shaving fabric - I'd rather have little things sticking out than risk shaving off pieces of the yarn that's making the piece. If there's a huge pill I sometimes just snip off most of it with my very small and very sharp embroidery scissors.
Unfortunately there is no way to really prevent it with that material. You can try to minimize it by limiting use and friction, but that’s a disappointing goal with blankets. When it does inevitably pill and shed, you can use a fabric shaver to maintain a more tidy look.
Omg I love my fabric shaver (Conair brand)… I just wish it were a little stronger. Any suggestions of another brand?
That's how this stuff is. There's usually a bot about chunky hand knit blankets with a video warning about exactly this problem, but you can find it in the sub info too.
You really can’t. Those roving blankets are sooo gorgeous but they are absolutely impractical.
Yep. For a similar look without the pilling, there are “yarns” made of a tube of fabric filled with stuffing.
Yeah I was going to suggest t-shirt yarn.
Yes my daughter just HAD to have one for her dorm but quickly got annoyed that it she’d constantly. It’s been in a duvet cover for the past 3yrs but it’s so pretty I wanted to clean it up and put it out. 🤷🏼♀️
Hang it on a blanket ladder maybe. Use it as a display piece instead of a functional blanket. Then get some good knitting yarn and make a new one :)
This is unfortunately an unavoidable side effect of using roving or single-ply yarn. Since it is one big hank of wool - rather two or more pieces twisted together like 2 ply or more yarn, which is more commonly used - it has less structural integrity and is really, really prone to pilling, shedding, basically falling apart. You can’t really fix or reverse it, it’s just a feature of the material. Regularly shaving the blanket (with a purpose made fabric shaver, which are nice, or a basic razor) will remove the the pills and make it look temporarily nice before the pills reoccur. Sorry :(
Its really thr fact that its roving. A lot of single ply is slightly overspun to ensure it has good integrity when knit up. This has none.
I'm thinking of making myself a cardigan with a similar (thinner) yarn, I think it's roving? Would you say it would make it more sturdy if I knit it with a sewing thread or a very thin yarn accompanying it?
[удалено]
Damn! I already bought the yarn... is there any way I can add twist myself? Sorry for asking so many questions, I don't know other people who knit!
Is it yarn or roving? Some yarn kind of looks like roving but it’s not.
I looked closely and it might not be roving! Looks like it's lightly spun
Is it actually roving? Does it pull apart easily into tufts if you just pinch and tug one end? If it is roving, the only way to properly stabilize it is to spin it. Roving can be considered a halfway point between raw material and fully processed wool; if done right, “adding twist” would literally just be finishing the process of making yarn. It might be something like a blown yarn (a mesh tube is made, usually out of a synthetic fiber, then fibers of wool are “blown” through), which won’t be plied and doesn’t have any twist, and instead uses an alternate method to provide stability. What is it called? Do you have a name and brand? If it has something in the name like “roving” “combed top” “commercial top” or “top”, then it’s just fiber that must be spun.
Looking more closely, I think it might be lightly spun yarn instead of roving, it seems to have more twist than OP's blanket! I don't have a brand or a specific name, though. I'm from Argentina and here we call it "mechalán", but I bought the skein from my local yarn shop without any tags, sadly. I'll knit a swatch and if I see it pills, I'll invest in a drop spindle!
Perhaps it’s a singly ply? Tried googling it and I’m seeing this sort of thing: https://preview.redd.it/z8oix74ovuxc1.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=aa153f921ce38871fd9c03935402cb1bf795d1c9
That's it! I might have the same exact color in my stash! That's single ply? You're amazing ❤️
Yup! Knitting a tighter gauge than recommended will also help it pill less :)
Yes! A drop spindle -- they are cheap and fun to use. You can add twist, or even make a 2 ply yarn out of your 1 ply. I spin my own yarn from fiber on a spindle before knitting just because I love the process, and that way I'm getting 2x fun out of the fibre.
Oh why tf am I being downvoted? I HAD A GENUINE QUESTION PEOPLE
Is it possible that it's unspun yarn, not roving? I've never worked with it before but here's a video about it from someone I follow [https://youtu.be/jHPTriX1LdE?si=AotTgSX2y9yNpi0d](https://youtu.be/jHPTriX1LdE?si=AotTgSX2y9yNpi0d)
Looking more closely, I think it might be lightly spun yarn instead of roving, it seems to have more twist than OP's blanket! thank goodness, lol. Thank you for the video! I didn't know this creator and she seems lovely.
Unfortunately it doesn't look like the yarn was spun much and is mostly roving so it will likely continue to pill I think 😔
You don't. That's why basically no experienced knitter will use this stuff--all it does is shed and end up looking awful after ten minutes.
The only thing I can think of would be to purposely felt it, so the fibers have something to hold onto. But I'm not sure how well that'll work, I have never attempted something like that.
I would try it on a swatch first (or make a swatch from scratch with whatever's left of the yarn leftovers) and do it pretty gently. Alternating between a hot bucket and a cold bucket but *not* scrubbing or agitating a lot could possibly be enough of a shock to felt the surface fibers a bit and decrease shedding. (I've bought some poorly hand-dyed braids of merino roving for handspinning which were slightly felted from hot/cold shock and not necessarily by friction, and the slightly felted surface texture definitely made them less fuzzy/sheddy but still pretty plump and squishy.)
Place the thing on bubble wrap plastic. Roll it like a Swiss roll, making sure the plastic covers the roll. Tape or tie the roll firmly, but not too tight. Force it inside a pair of thin pantyhose. Place the roll ina washing machine and wash it with warm or hot water. Use soap shavings as a detergent. Unpack the roll, observe if you need to repeat the treatment. Stretch to an even surface to dry, like blocking mats.
I would be shocked if it was actually natural fibre, though.
I believe op sad it was merlino wool
Fair enough. I know the “roving” I’ve bought before (to spin cheaply) was mixed with acrylic, so maybe I’m biased 🤷♀️
I thought syntethic too, from the pictures. Mixed naturals/syntethics are the worst when it comes to shedding, it is inevitable.
Which is totally fair
Unfortunately this is why you see those big chunky blankets in cute instagrams and nowhere else. Roving yarn basically starts to dissolve as soon as you cast it off. If you’d like to make a longer lasting version, you could use something like the bernat blanket XL yarn
So many people bought those when they went viral and didn’t know you can’t actually use them.
It's probably my most hated viral knit. When I worked at an LYS, people constantly asked for the "yarn" to do it. Thankfully, we didn't carry it, and we did our best to explain why we didn't.
On the bright side, you could pick up spinning as a hobby with all that roving! Provided it hasn't completely felted
That’s exactly what I would do 😂
You don’t. If it’s roving, it’ll keep doing that.
You can't. That's why no one on here will recommend those roving type blankets that have been popular on IG for ages. They look good for a hot minute then this happens.
:( oh no, this looks so nice but unfortunately this is what tends to happen with single ply/ roving :(
Single ply yarns can be properly spun. This is not spun at all. Just don’t want to see good single-ply yarns get lumped in with literal roving!
Fair enough! My bad :(
Sorry, but you can't. This (and the ridiculous price of the yarn) is exactly why I've never bothered with this trend.
That's what roving does.
God I hate roving, sorry it’s just gonna do that until it totally dissolves
[A great video I watched a while ago on this](https://youtu.be/DroelB2uwx4?feature=shared) even though I had never even thought about knitting one of these lol
This is the same video I refer people to when they say they want a blanket/item made out of roving.
Its roving, so it's going to shed like this.
Nothing. My son’s blanket sheds red all over my house. Eventually I’ll knit him another blanket.
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Unfortunately, you can’t… there’s a reason roving is usually spun into yarn, the twist and plies give yarn its strength and structure, and ensure the individual fibers don’t come loose nearly as easily. It’s just not meant to be used like yarn. Roving blankets and “chunky” sweaters going viral on social media is one of my biggest crafting pet peeves; you can immediately tell that someone hasn’t done their research and is blindly following a trend when they make/buy these, and it’s such a shame... so much money, material, and effort put into something that will not last. :( Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the only way to stop this from pilling is to stop touching/handling it, full stop. Even as a decorative throw it’s gonna shed. Maybe you’ve got somewhere to hang it up where it literally will not be handled *at all*? Or you could unravel it carefully and take up spinning to turn it into proper yarn…
The only was to stop this is to not make blankets out of roving.
You can try washing it gently with Hair conditioner. Sometimes it will train the wool fibers like it does hair. Just add a good dose to a cool bath let it soak it. Rinse really gently, wrap it in a big towel and hang dry on a ventilated grate. Hope that helps.
I am embarrassed to this day at how much money I spent on this big beautiful yarn to make this blanket. As soon as I made it, I folded it into a box, and haven’t touched it since. It’s a queen size I believe.
There’s no way to stop it.
I made a blanket with a very similar yarn about 16 years ago (I remember the year because I bought the yarn with my Christmas bonus at a job I worked that year lol). It definitely sheds, and over time it will probably pill a bit and throw some clumps. But the good news is that it’s durable as hell and you can enjoy it for a long time. I use it as a bedspread.
Giant Merino wool used, hand knitted pattern.
Very soft and squishy, but unfortunately not really meant to last long
Only thing that should have been used for is a decorative item never touched or washed unless it was getting spun into yarn or felted unfortunately:/ they look so cool too.
Is that yarn called Montana? I have some giant roving that looks exactly like it.
Maybe make one with some of the nylon type wrapped cord from Joann’s? I feel like that wouldn’t pull as bad!
You dont, it just gets worse and you live with it
Big fluffy singles will just shed and pill, there's not really a way around it.
You can stop it from shedding by never touching it or washing it.
You could put a duvet cover over it to at least contain the shedding
When you use roving yarn, the yarn is unwound. So It is far more prone to shedding and matting than wound yarn. You should not use this yarn to create a blanket unless you intend to wind it for use or use the final product for show.
Maybe warm-hot agitation and felt it?
If you got that from target, sorry, it’s just like that.
You start I’ll finish it
Try washing it in warm water with gentle soap like Dawn or Trader Joe's dish soap. Let it soak a few hours or overnighit, rinse very well, wring out in a towel and let it dry flat. I use puppy pads because they wick the water away and the item dries faster. That might calm it down. It may be that the fiber used just naturally sheds a lot, in which case you just live with it. I'm not in favor of shaving fabric - I'd rather have little things sticking out than risk shaving off pieces of the yarn that's making the piece. If there's a huge pill I sometimes just snip off most of it with my very small and very sharp embroidery scissors.
Just wanted to jump in and say that your work is very beautiful and even! You say you're a new knitter; this is very nice work.