In an ironic twist of fate, knitting this garment has not added to the GREY that is February but is LIFTING me out of the dullness!
Cassie, (she of the beautiful Central Park Gate Pictures), encourages us to EMBRACE the slower time that is this shortest month and become a…
This is a great idea! Although many mornings I feel like I’d rather just burrow further into the bed, I can instead, FOCUS on the projects I have going and Wrap Them Up! It’s the perfect time to look away from the Cabin Walls and look into what Could Be Done. In what would certainly be a first for me, I’ll have finished everything I started this Winter Season and go into the SPRING with a clean slate.
FRESH! Exciting…
Like Cassie (and her daughter), I was born in February (Bday a couple of weeks ago), and it makes me wonder just how important the Weather Seasons are to a baby. The first few weeks of my life, my mother tells me, I wore nightgowns that had a drawstring through the bottom, like a sack and then I was wrapped in a receiving blanket.
(SOUNDS a lot like the swaddling wraps of Tudor Times to me. YIKES! I recently finished reading “the Other Boleyn Girl” and one of the things that Mary Boleyn always does when she is alone with her infant is to remove her baby’s wraps so it can Kick Freely!)
So this year, I’m symbolically “throwing off the Wraps” and going to go quickly into the February Days that remain with Happy Hands & Feet!
And, but of course, a new Grey Sweater! The CableMe lies a blockin’ and is ready to be seamed and banded. I adore this yarn (Sweet Grass Wool) but it was too Barny for a simple steam finish and had to go to the Baths. I soaked the pieces in hot water in my washing machine (with a couple of tiny squirts of Dawn Dishsoap) for a few minutes, spun it out, rinsed with vinegar, spun, rinsed with plain water. Then I smoothed it out on my Blocking Rug and there she sits a dryin’…
FRESH. Exciting…
Happy belated birthday, Bonne Marie! :)
Happy birthday! Hope you had fun.
Is the vinegar rinse to banish barny odors, or does it soften or something?
Both – as I understand it, wool has a slightly acidic pH. Soap, is alkaline. To restore the wooly goodness, a little shot of vinegar will bring it round. It also gets rid of that barny smell… :)
Although, I LOVE the barny smell and am a Certifiable Yarn Sniffer…
Belated Happy B’day, Bonne Marie — and may your needles ever click, and your stash always be full!
oh, Belated Birthday wishes, dear!
Hope to see you again at this year’s
MSWF…
KICK ON!
You are designing that sweater yourself, aren’t you? I can’t believe it – it looks amazing. Sometimes I wonder by I even buy patterns…oh, that’s probably because I hate ripping and writing my own pattern would probably require some patience. But I will try…
Happy Birthday, and Happy Knitting!
Hot water and spinning! The wool does not felt?
Thanks for the B-Bday wishes! I’m OLDEr, yeah, true, actually LOVE IT! W-O-M-A-N… NOT a little girl no more.
Felting: to felt, you need heat AND agitation. Heat alone will not felt. The knitted fabric needs to scrub up against something whilst it’s in the hot water.
Spinning merely sucks the water out of the sweater and doesn’t scrub it, so no felting takes place! I’ve washed my sweaters like this for years (soaking, very gentle swishing, spinning, rinsing, & final spinning) with nary a mishap.
The Sweater: yes, it’s a ChicKnitted design alright – the little bastard’s been on the boards since, GASP! last February!!!