Day 344 - Burning Things

What do you do when you have a collection of unidentified yarn?  First you estimate how much of it you have, and then you burn a piece to sort out what it's made of.

For the first part of the equation, find a McMoran balance. 

 
Cut a small length of the mystery yarn and hang it on the notched arm of the balance.  Cut off wee bits until the arms balance.

Measure the piece and multiple by 100 to get how many yards per pound (YPP).  Then weigh the remainder and do the math.  (I know MATH is a dirty word.)

To get fairly good idea of what the yarn is made of requires burning a piece and observing how it burns, what it looks like, what it smells like and what is left.  See the chart here.  Note do this somewhere you won't catch the house or anything else on fire.  And burning yarn can really stink, so keep that in mind too.

Using these techniques, I managed to get my remaining cones of yarn cataloged and sorted into storage bins to go in the studio. 

I also finished the intarsia and MK on the second stocking and it is ready to have the heel knit.  So I have rocked my 11 today. (And really early too.)

Anyone else have mystery yarn in the stash?