wandering eyes...

so, i was on a mission today. black peep toe heels, and some short sleeve dress shirts for the man. despairing at buying anything new, i hit the thrift stores, and, be still my beating heart, scored yarn.

total price tag? $7.92 and not a single acrylic in the bunch.

the three vintage spools are thread-weight wool, the two seafoam skeins on the right are mission falls cotton, the red in the middle is some sort of variegated wool (single-ply... there's no ball band, but the texture suggests wool), to the left is blue-black-purple fingering weight wool (okay, 75% wool) and the turquoise on the left is 100% wool. the white stuff in the bag is a mystery, but it's the most buttery damn yarn i've ever felt. can't possibly be acrylic.

then in between laundry loads, and some slight packing for the move, i got this sweater out.

it's an express sweater, also wool, but i just don'g really dig it. the yarn is gorgeous though. so i started unraveling it for the yarn. not too hard, but time consuming. i started with the right button band, which is why you can't see any buttons in this picture (cuz i took them off already).

but here's the thing. this stuff in the sweater is fine. it isn't felted, or nubby... then you pull it out and it's like this:

i expected the yarn to be curly. it's been in that shape for goodness knows how long... but is there anyway to recondition the yarn? should i wash it? soak it? knit/crochet it first then wash soak it? i'm at a loss here. help please.