I subscribe to the Yarn Harlot's view of blocking - that finishing a piece of knitting demands...
This big throw felt deeply cozy, round, and ready to snuggle down on the couch with even before it was off the needles.
The thick-thin-crazy of the yarn and the fact it's a throw meant uniform stitches, exact shaping and sizing weren't an issue but I believed it would be better if it also felt finished. So over the weekend I filled the tub, poured an alarming amount of Eucalan into it (lots of water demands lots of wool wash) and laid the throw onto the surface of the water. I planned to wait for it to sink to the bottom as a sign it was completely saturated.
2 hours later it was still afloat with some sections still completely dry...
Pressing it down to the bottom of the tub helped - for a few minutes - but 'next time I checked it had bobbed back to the surface again...
The demonstrated power, in that stuff that grows out of sheep, to repel water and retain air was really something to see right there in our bath.
More pressing was required to keep it at the bottom where it sat for a while to really soak. Then almost 4 hours after dropping it in the tub I saw the reverse of wool's ability to stay dry and hold air...its capacity to hold water and be wet...
After lots of pressing to expel excess water before lifting it from the tub...
It took a full laundry basket of bath towels to squeeze the piece into dampness but as I carried it to the blocking board it honestly felt only just the slightest bit damp again - almost as if it had never been thoroughly wet in the first place.
I pinned it out in the breeze of a small fan late Sunday afternoon and by first thing Monday morning it was dry.
As I'd hoped, the drapier, cleaned, truly finished knitting is quite superior to its pre-blocked self...
Blocking has given it softness so it can lie close to the body. Of course its still fantastically textural but luxuriously so rather than purely rustic.
For decades now I've loved working yarn into visually entertaining patterns/textures but stitching this hefty stuff in simple stockinette and seeing it behave through a thorough soaking/drying, I feel newly schooled in wool's amazing properties...
- Removing dirt and oils the fibre accumulates through handling/selling/storing/knitting.
- Setting the stitches to look uniform and even.
- Shaping
- Stretching to correct size.
This big throw felt deeply cozy, round, and ready to snuggle down on the couch with even before it was off the needles.
The thick-thin-crazy of the yarn and the fact it's a throw meant uniform stitches, exact shaping and sizing weren't an issue but I believed it would be better if it also felt finished. So over the weekend I filled the tub, poured an alarming amount of Eucalan into it (lots of water demands lots of wool wash) and laid the throw onto the surface of the water. I planned to wait for it to sink to the bottom as a sign it was completely saturated.
2 hours later it was still afloat with some sections still completely dry...
Pressing it down to the bottom of the tub helped - for a few minutes - but 'next time I checked it had bobbed back to the surface again...
The demonstrated power, in that stuff that grows out of sheep, to repel water and retain air was really something to see right there in our bath.
More pressing was required to keep it at the bottom where it sat for a while to really soak. Then almost 4 hours after dropping it in the tub I saw the reverse of wool's ability to stay dry and hold air...its capacity to hold water and be wet...
After lots of pressing to expel excess water before lifting it from the tub...
It took a full laundry basket of bath towels to squeeze the piece into dampness but as I carried it to the blocking board it honestly felt only just the slightest bit damp again - almost as if it had never been thoroughly wet in the first place.
I pinned it out in the breeze of a small fan late Sunday afternoon and by first thing Monday morning it was dry.
As I'd hoped, the drapier, cleaned, truly finished knitting is quite superior to its pre-blocked self...
Blocking has given it softness so it can lie close to the body. Of course its still fantastically textural but luxuriously so rather than purely rustic.
For decades now I've loved working yarn into visually entertaining patterns/textures but stitching this hefty stuff in simple stockinette and seeing it behave through a thorough soaking/drying, I feel newly schooled in wool's amazing properties...
3 comments:
Love the look of this shawl. I must knit a bulky cream shawl. You might be horrified, but after I've soaked a project I put it in the spin cycle of my front-loading washing machine (in a laundry bag) and spin it briefly. There's no heat and no agitation so that the woollen garment, shawl, scarf etc emerges undamaged and nicely damp. Saves a lot of blotting and damp towels.
Just as stellar as I expected.
Glad you had that impulse buy in Argentina!
LisaRR
I think I adore this.
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