Hands up!
I'm a bit busy at the moment, so not much knitting to show. I barely manage to squeeze out a row of the Opal fish socks now and then. But you've already seen enough of them.
Last weekend, however, I was daring.
I am such a coward if it comes to washing wool items, so I usually avoid this topic by
a) not using hand-wash yarns or
b) not washing my clothes... (before turning away in disgust, re-read a) ;-)
My excuse for this acquired behaviour: The first sweater I ever knit was thrown by s-o-m-e-o-n-e into the washing machine! It came out way too small, children's size actually. And I really don't remember who is to blame for it, most likely I did it but due to the trauma my memory is blank.
Being already older than a year by now I thought my Lopapeysa derserves a refreshment. And since I had not the slightest idea about blocking by the time I knit it up, I used the chance to transform it from a sqare shape into a rectangle version.
Sensitive wool lovers are warned hereby. The following picture displays uttermost cruelty!
I took the soaking wet sweater (and let me tell you, it is not easy to soak an airy and greasy sweater like that!) and hanged it. Hanged it up. The result is simply brilliant: the stitches are more even (what a surprise...) and the fit improved just as hoped planned. What a nice idea, this blocking thing...
A close up of the pattern?
Does it remind anyone of... socks?
On sockapal-2-za. Of course the socks are not here yet. Otherwise I wouldn't yatter about year old projects! But when I came home tonight, a note told me that there's a parcel waiting for me at the post office. Can't be anything from Amazon since it says nothing about import tariff. (They have import tax on books and CD's here - how rude!). A well-founded guess is therefore: my socks have landed! Hope I can sleep tonight ;-)
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Lovely Lopi!
Oh boy, oh boy, can't wait to see the socks! :)
My Oma always said that "wool cleans itself" so I don't wash woolens as often as other clothes. The colors of the Lopi are lovely!
The sweater is beautiful and yes, something with that wool, I would imagine would be difficult to get soaking wet. Actually I don't wash my woolens that often, b/c they're a pain to handwash, although I usually wash mine in the washing machine. Well, I let the water fill up and put any wool wash or hair conditioner and let it sit and I "squoosh" it down into the water a few times, let the washing machine spin out the water, let the water fill up again, squish it around some more, then spin out again (with water at the same temp), then I take out the wool garments and lay out on towels to air-dry. So it is a bit intensive, but not as bad as hand-washing it. It's worked well for my woolies. HTH!
I was hoping my package was socks from my sock pal, but it turned out to be from you and that was very thrilling! Thanks again. See my blog for a picture too.
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