I certainly hope so. I smoke and have been collecting yarn at yard sales and thrift shops for my husband's aunt who is 77. She knits all year round. When I took the last batch to her (five large garbage bags full) she said she had enough now, not to bring any more. I have been doing this about four years. I wondered why and started to think perhaps there is a smoke smell to it. I can't smell it because I smoke. I think I will come out and ask her if that is why she doesnt want me to bring more.

Depending what trouble you want to go to I have a few ideas:
1) Look into getting one of the dry clean kits (you can find at dept. stores), I would think it would make the yarn smell nice, but not change the texture of the yarns.
2) Spray with a fabric freshener (I'm not sure if we can say brand names here) I found some in the dept. stores (same company that makes air freshener sprays).
3) Soak the lot in vinegar and water, I have tried removing cigarette smoke from the air by swirling a vinegar and water soaked towel around my home and it does work, I bet it would work in the yarns as well, however it will change the texture of the yarns once they're dry. You would need to use a mesh bag to hold the yarns in the dryer.

Here is a link that might be useful: DIY fabric freshener

Thanks. I'll give that a try.
Judy

I was given 10 boxes of yarn that smelled like smoke. I aired them outside and it went away in a few days, so there may be no need to wash it. I simply left each skein as-is outside on the screened porch.

We addressed this topic some time ago also. Here is the link to it below.

Personally, I would want to wash it to get the odor out, not just spray it with a cover up.

I remember that I read once about securing skeins of yarn inside the legs of pantyhose and washing them that way. The pantyhose would keep the yarn from tangling a lot. I've never done this, but you could try a test skein.

Here is a link that might be useful: cigarette yarn

I have put yarn in a mesh or net bag, even the kind of bag onions come in , secured it with a rubber band at the top and put it thru the washing machine with similar color clothes. The yarn came out odor free , well worth the effort.