Washing yarn

Have you ever had to wash your yarn? Yes, I did say "yarn." Not "finished project."

Before I share the details, we already know that you should never put anything but knitting and knitting supplies in your knitting bag. We’ve all done it sometime or another - carried around something that should never have been in the bag with the knitting. However the next time you are tempted to downsize to one bag for all your travel-about needs, please think about this:

Last Friday I came upstairs from the shop and discovered there was something leaking from my knitting bag. I didn't think there was anything leakable in the bag. I carefully pulled out each item in the bag. First my almost finished entrelac hat, which was fine and free of any liquid substances.

Then another project - the soon to be revealed Noro Silk Garden Sock project, again free of any liquid substances. I was starting to feel less panicked at this point.

The next thing I reached for was sticky. It was the remainder of the ball of Noro Silk Garden from my entrelac hat. And it was more than just sticky, it was saturated. By this point I realized that the maple syrup I brought to work for my coffee had taken it upon itself to explore my knitting bag on the drive in to the shop. Even though I’d removed it immediately when I got to the shop, that short trip from Burlington to Essex Junction was enough time for it to have a wild party in my little bag. BUMMER!

I had used two balls of the Noro Silk Garden yarn in my entrelac hat (it really only takes one!)because I wanted to choose the colors that appeared in my hat. The second ball was still in my bag and there was quite a lot of it left. It was so sticky, it looked like a lost cause. Throw it away? No! Never! I cannot waste yarn! (Some of you may know this feeling.) I had to do something to save it!

So I ran the water in the sink and got ready to do a little yarn washing. :) This was pretty easy for a silk-wool blend, but did I mention that there were also two balls of fluffy, gorgeous, unused, Adriafil Carezza angora that had also been sitting in the syrup puddle in my knitting bag?

I could have thrown them out. That is probably what a sane knitter would do, but I just couldn’t do it. I hadn’t even taken the ball bands off these. So wash it I did, very gently in warm water, without agitating it because I didn’t want it to felt. Poor angora yarn, it looked like a little wad of wet rabbit hair, nothing like yarn at all! I put it in a plastic bag to go home, and when I got there I used my umbrella swift to unwind the angora very carefully into a loose skein so it could dry. It worked! The yarn is back to a fluffy wonderful ball waiting to be knit into a hat. But what a lot to go through!

Repeat after me, "I will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, put anything to endanger my knitting into my knitting bag!"

Seeing Stripes

So you know we now have Noro. And I've been knitting with the Silk Garden and the Kureyon and the Kochoran. Barb made something with the Cashmere Island - which I am going to swatch tomorrow (it's so soft!) Shawn is cooking something up with the Silk Garden Sock (not a sock!) and I'm trying to pick a project out for the Iro. And a project went out to Karen in NJ... a sweater in the Kureyon. So lots of Noro knitting going on here.

My intital thoughts on Noro? I really like it. I love the color transitions. You just can't get that in any other yarn. I knit an easy bag out of 2 colors of the Kureyon: and just felted it this weekend. I wouldn't say it's the softest wool out there, but it really didn't bother me as much as I thought it might. And for all those people who swear Noro is loaded with knots... in four balls I had none. (I don't freak out at knots the way some people do. It's a knot... I untie it, and knit on. Just my feeling, folks.)

The Kochoran was lovely to knit with. Very soft and quick to knit and that angora is so gorgeous! I would love this in a sweater because the angora is there, but not so in your face. After the Kochoran is felted, the angora is WAY more in your face, but in a good way. Look how gorgeous and fuzzy these mittens are!

The Silk Garden is my favorite of the bunch. I thought I'd finish the little sweater I'm making this weekend. After all, it was so cold outside that I did manage to stay inside for the whole day (except for a super quick trip to the grocery store!) I finished knitting the sleeves, and then got ready for seaming. Did I mention I love seaming? When you know how to do it right, it's almost as enjoyable as the knitting. I swear!

The bummer about this sweater is that it called for 200gm of Silk Garden. That's 4 balls. When I finished the back, I had an inkling that I would need a 5th ball. And I was horrified today, to find that not only did I go into the 5th ball, but I need a 6th, just for the last 4 rows and bind off of the neck ribbing.

I'm too tired tonight to check my row gauge (my stitch gauge is right on) and really, what can I do? If I need another ball, I need another ball. It is what it is. I'm also going to research online - are there erratas out for this pattern in terms of yardage required? Possibly. And another thought. These little felines could be the culprits of the yarn shortage... at least for a part of that 5th ball. I really think I had another small bit of it in my bag, and left unattended around yarn, both of these cats, well, they have a really bad track record.