"mirjam" wrote in message
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(snip)

Hallo Murielle
Do you have any idea what the threads are made of ?
are they wool ?man made threads ?
Why did you use baking Soda ????

Hi Mirjam,

I have just been looking at the shawl under a magnifiying glass. I think it
must be man-made because of the way it's behaving. The fiber sticks
together, though I can separate it, but then it just sticks again. The
colour is a mix of blues and there appears to be a couple of nylon strands
mixed in with the fiber.

I used the baking soda in the water--not much, maybe half a cup in a washer
full of water--because I know baking soda softens water. The yarn is rough
and scratchy, it never used to be. I thought it would soften the fibers.
It didn't.

If you can snip of a piece of thread [ if it has a tail ?] do it take
the thread over a sink , and light it with a match look at the result
and smell it , this may tell you what the threads are !

I can't find any tails. I know Mom must have bound it off and weaved the
tails through the pattern so they wouldn't show. She did an excellent job.

if you can`t do this test take a magnifying glass and look at 1-2
places where the shawl seems stuck together , and try to unstick it
delicately with your fingers ,, if you feel you can do it , lay the
shawl , as is on a flat place and delicately enter your fingers than
your hand between the folded layers stopping with every hint of
problem .

please tell me what happened ,,,,, let`s do it step after step ..

I did this as I said above, something else I noticed is that in several
places bits of thread and fluff balls are stuck to the scarf. I'm not going
to say it's pilling, because that's not what's going on, but it has
attracted pills from other fabrics it's come in contact with. It's so
weird. I've never seen anything like this before.

Baking Soda only took out oils if there were any , tangled /stuck
together threads happen more when they are manmade or mohairs...When
they were kept in a place that was a bit warm and /or humid and if
they were under something heavy weight. was it folded in a nylon bag ?

I'm trying to remember if there was anything on top of it ... perhaps a few
sweaters. It wasn't at the top of the file, but it wasn't on the bottom
either. Could it be a nylon mix? I've never seen acrylic behave this way.

It was not in a plastic bag. I thought that was a good thing. Just on the
shelf with my other out of season knits.

It's a trianglular shawl and was folded to approximate a square so that it
would fit in the pile easily.

Sorry my info is so choppy. I'm just trying to get down anything I can tell
you about the yarn and shawl.

Thank you so much for this, Mirjam.
Murielle

mirjam