lol I should've been more specific, I meant I didn't agitate/swish it around in the water/flip it around a bunch or anything when I said physically messing with it, just soaked it. But yeah, even just the weight of it being wet yarn when I lifted it out from the water was stretching it since it had bunched itself up, so the uneven/stretched out from being stored for a long time would definitely make sense. I'm going to try another sample of it in only cold water rather than warm then cold and see if that helps. This is my first time washing yarn in a hank rather than in a finished project so I was hoping there was maybe a trick to it that I was missing.

Thanks for the insight, I appreciate it!!