Tips & Techniques: April 2006 Archives

I know you all warned me about trying to pre-wash more hanks of linen but I had to try. It's really hard to accept defeat.

I'm happy to report complete success this time! If you like the way knitted linen feels but hate that hardness of the yarn here's what you need to do:*

1. The hank comes with 2 ties already on it. Add 3 more to each side, and tie them in a figure 8. To be safe I made each figure 8 into 3 sections instead of 2. 270 yards makes for a think hank and I wanted to make sure this yarn didn't budge.
2. Fill the sink up with warm water, a little laundry detergent and a little fabric softener.
3. Put the hank in the sink and let it sit for a good hour.
4. Drain the water.
5. Fold the hank in half, half again, and then wring. I would never do this with wool but it really helped with the linen.
6. Untwist the hank and rinse until the water runs clear.
7. Repeat the wringing out process.
8. Put it in a lingerie bag. Pin through the bag in 4 inch intervals very close to the hank. Make it so the yarn can't fold onto itself and tangle.
   
9. Drop it in the dryer with a few lint-free items. I used woven pajama bottoms. This step isn't necessary but giving the yarn something else to bang up against will speed up the process.
10. Run it through a few cycles of drying. It took a little more than 2 cycles to dry my hank.
11. Unpin, remove from the bag, and wind.
12. Sit back and enjoy your beautiful and stress-free pre-washed linen yarn.

*Many thanks to Jayme and Patty (blogless) for their comments and suggestions. This method is a combination of ideas they sent to me. Thanks ladies!

This story is entirely my own fault, and I'm sharing this it so you don't make the same mistakes I did.

i seriously doubt you would

It starts out with a comment from Jayme, suggesting I wash the linen hanks so they'll soften before I knit with it.

jayme honey, i'm not blaming you for this...it's all my fault

I tie the hank in 4 places (making it 6 places with the 2 that are already there), drop it in my easy-does-it-can't-felt-to save-my-life front loader. A little detergent, a little fabric softener, and we're off.

i go upstairs, make myself a french bread pizza, and wait for my soft and fluffy hank to finish its bath

An hour later I take out the hank and it's a rumpled mess. It's linen's version of felted. It's twisted and knotted all onto itself. I try to untangle it but wet linen is like velcro and it won't budge. It even makes irksome creeky noises when I pull on it. I put it into a lingerie bag and let the dryer do its thing.

at this point you're probably wondering why i didn't use the bag for the wash cycle. join the club.

Three cycles of drying later and the hank is fluffy, soft, and haloed.

and knotted, kinked and clumpy

It's midnight, and I go to bed, exhausted and annoyed.

Next night, I detangle it enough to get onto the swift and commence unraveling it inch by inch by hand.

2.5 hours later and i'm done. i considered taking a pic but i just didn't have it in me

Equipped with a wonky looking (but detangled) hand-wound ball, I drop it in a tall box on the floor and attach the free end to the winder.

this was blissful for about 20 seconds

And then, the ball exploded into three mini-balls. The ends wound all up onto each other, and it was again a mess.

i swear this happened, and even though i had consumed 4 mai tais earlier that evening, it in no way impaired my perspective. the ball exploded and made three mini balls of hell. they were multiplying.

Another hour gone by (with a TIVOd episode of CSI: Miami in the background) and I was back in business.

i was a ball-winding-madwoman. no one could stop me.

And no one did stop me. But something did. It was at this moment that the 2/3rds of a center-pull-ball-in-progress did the only thing it could do to thwart me.

It flew off the winder. In majestic form. It arced and hit the wall with a thud, trailing a lone strand of yarn still connected to the winder. For a brief moment it was beautiful, almost comet-like.

The fucker committed suicide

Isabella thought this was just grand, and did what any kitty would do to her prey. She pounced on it and squeezed it with all four paws.

I extracted the ball from her and plotted my next move.

I took the suicidal ball and stretched and pulled and got it back on the ball winder. Conscious of my speed, I wound at a slower pace, stopping occasionally to make sure the ball didn't work its way back up the winder.

the yarn was obviously committed and i wasn't taking any chances

A few moments later I emerged victorious.

Behold, a pre-washed, fluffy, soft, drapey and cuddly ball of yarn.

Thank you all for the wonderful comments on Somewhat Cowl!

Several people left comments asking for more details on the short rows that I inserted in the shoulders. I'll share with you what I did, and what I think you'll need to do for yourself.

The point I want to stress is that you must do this by trying it on your own body. Shoulder width, drape and stretch of yarn and armhole depth will all play a part in how many short rows you need.

Here's an updated version of the illustration I presented in my last post.

This illustration shows you how SC's shoulders fit me after doing the yoke. The end of the yoke came out at a soft angle rather than a harsh 90 degrees.

After looking at SC on my body in the mirror, I decided I need about 1.5 inches total length added in the center of the sleeve, tapering out to nothing at the edges.

So, here's what I did, starting with the first row of the sleeve after knitting the yoke (let's assume a gauge of 6 spi):

Row 1: Pickup and knit stitches at armhole, and then around the sleeve until 15% of the sleeve stitches from the center top of the sleeve are knit. So, if the sleeve had a total of 100 stitches, knit 15 stitches past the center top of the sleeve. Wrap and turn.
Row 2: Purl 29, wrap and turn.
Row 3: Knit 35, wrap and turn (picking up and knitting wrap when you come to it).
Row 4: Purl 41, wrap and turn (picking up and knitting wrap when you come to it).

Keep following the above, going an extra 6 stitches (1 inch) past the last row's short row until a total of 1.5 inches of short rows have been knit.

Once they've been knit, start knitting all sleeve stitches in the round. For short sleeves on SC, this means knit an inch of sleeve in stockinette before switching to 2x2 rib.

added later: grumperina left a comment that she also has written up some details on short row shoulders. you can read hers here.

Let me know if this makes sense, or if you think I've left something out. Like so many things in knitting (or just because I'm Italian and like talking with my hands) it would be a lot easier to demonstrate in person than try to get it down on paper.