Setting the Twist

I have a ton of photos and stuff to blog about, but for now I'm sharing this one photo. It's hard to tell here, but I'm setting the twist on my Tour de Fleece yarn.

On Saturday I finished plying my merino, Navajo plied my Tour de Fleece yarn and skeined both, along with my Corriedale single. You can see the original roving for all three here.

I've heard mixed advice on how to set the twist. For now, I'm listening to my Mom and soaking it in hot water with some Eucalan. Afterwards I'll probably swing it, and maybe whack it on a hard surface once or twice. I know whacking is supposed to be fun, but it's late and the only good place to do it is against my shower wall. I don't think my neighbors would appreciate that. After that, I think I'll hang it and weight it with a coffee mug. I know some people use larger weights, but I don't think mine is kinking that much.

In Spin to Knit they say to wash it in lukewarm like you would a handknit item. I've also heard mixed reviews on swinging versus whacking and weighting versus not weighting. I might try other techniques later. I think the soy/wool blend I'm doing now probably won't felt as easily as the 100% merino. I'm not sure if I'm willing to go with hot water on the merino. Any advice or opinions are welcome.

I'm also looking for opinions on the permanent name for the Broken Scarf. I finished it last night, but I'm not posting an official FO post until I have a name and a pattern to upload to Ravelry. Carly riffed on "Broken Scarf" and came up with "Broken DNA." Amy took it a step farther and came up with Helicase and Topoisomerase. However, all the DNA talk got me thinking about Gel Electrophoresis. I think the scarf most closely resembles Gel Electrophoresis, but I need a shorter name than that. I may do a poll later, but for now, I'm still taking suggestions.