Dear Kay,
This is Olive.
She has started the new year by going Whole30, Kon Mari-ing her crate, and using a bullet journal to plan her naps. She also bought a year’s worth of spin classes, got some highlights and hired a wardrobe consultant.
She has a Fitbit now, which brings me to the reason I mention Olive: she needs to get her steps up, so she may or may not be attending the Walk in the Park we are cooking up for Sunday, January 17 during Vogue Knitting Live in New York.
We have a hardy band of knitters all ready to take a ramble beginning at 7:30 am, and we welcome everybody who’s in the vicinity, whether a local or a visitor, to join us. Please sign up here if you’re game—we want to have enough coffee and carbs for everybody. I am going to wear at least four handknits, no matter what the weather, and I am curious to see what everybody else will be wearing. C’mon! Early risers, arise!
Meanwhile, That Cowl
I honestly don’t know why I’m persisting with this cowl. It’s not a bad cowl; it’s just proving to be more of a fuss than it warrants. I’m not going to end up with a six-foot-long wedding veil, or anything braggable. It’s just some dogged need to complete this thing. I’ll be brief.
I ripped out the border. (This misbegotten, woebegone, uncooperative border.)
Felt good, in a bad kind of way.
When left with a ball of wrinkly yarn and a mingy-sized cowl, I decided I’ll just knit the wrinkly yarn back into the cowl and call it a day.
I’ve read that you’re supposed to wash out yarn that has been knitted, to make it all smooth and great again. Seriously not going to do that with this. Does anybody actually do that?
Maybe it’ll ease out in the blocking. Isn’t that what we say whenever something is clearly not great?
I am dreaming of pompoms.
Love,
Ann
I have done much ripping (haven’t we all?) and never washed the yarn.
Re knitting in the same gauge it will fall nicely into place.
Lovely cowl, just as it is.
This yarn (superlush and luvly merino by Camellia Fiber Co.) is already relaxing. It wants to behave!
In my experience, you really need to wash yarn if it has something super soft, like cashmere in it. It completely messes up the stitch definition.
Exhibit A
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/laureni526/hubs-neck-warmer
Zoom in on the right side of the cowl. In my zealotry, I ripped out the swatch from something else to have as much as possible to use, because, no matter how cheap, cashmere should not be wasted. I’ve done this twice now, because I forgot. The sad thing is blocking helps, but does not fix everything.
Now I’m asking Hub to build me a niddy-noddy so I can skein and wash up a sweaters worth of cascade Eco. I guess I’m becoming that person.
Lauren, I want to also use 2 skeins of Cascade Eco+. Is it better to wash before I knit and why? Thank you!
I just frogged my Aidez and the yarn is super kinky. I have 1 1/2 skeins left and I’m worried that they will not match in the new cardigan. I’m trying to get both sets of yarn to the same place (even if I have to wash the new yarn, because I’m worried about ending up with one Michelin Man sleeve and one twiggy sleeve. Just seems like a good precaution. Augusta Cardigan is too pretty to mess up.
Love your reply. Both for the info (because frogged cashmere waiting to be washed and hung off a hanger since I don’t have a nodfy noddy & was about to cave in and just knit it up) and the laugh!
This was a reply to Lauren that I managed to screw up.
Why wait? You can make a simple middy noddy from PVC pipe and 2 t connectors. It does lack visual beauty but it works!
Well that example was a super soft alpaca, but it still applies.
I love a visual aid! I see what you mean.
Also: it’s handy to have a Hub who can whip up a niddy-noddy for you . . . my Hub MIGHT be able to Amazon me a niddy-noddy, once he googled niddy-noddy to figure out what it is.
I HAD to google niddy-noddy. Sure does look simple to make but I think it should be called Knitty-Knotty:)
I have never washed the frogged yarn. It relaxes enough if I wind it into a ball. I figure blocking will take care of the rest.
If possible, though, I will use frogged yarn on a less-visible part of the work, but that’s just a touch of OCD at work.
The borderless cowl looks much better now.
Less strivey! More honest!
Yes, I have washed frogged yarn, Koigu and Silk Garden.
Wish I could walk in the park to see all the show-off knits we know will appear.
I am knitting with some frogged denim, mixed with new denim, and I have to remember to yank on the frogged stuff more, or it really does look loose, and we know it’s not going to shrink again (is it??). I think it’ll be fine. Wool, for sure, just use it…
Perhaps the cowl could use some small pom poms. A girl can dream…
I never wash the yarn. I rewind into a ball and if possible let it rest for a day or so. I do this when I need my searches as well. Sorry I will miss the walk!
I have knit with more frogged yarn than I would like to admit to. Soft yarn, strider yarn–I am with the others than it all evens out in the blocking. Blocking truly does cure most sins–except maybe that cowl border which did deserve to be frogged.
I don’t wash frogged yarn. And it has never been a problem.
I agree with Jenny maybe a couple of pompoms on the cowl since you no longer have a lacy border. My first choice would be red pompoms.
Sorry to be missing the walk in the park. And Vogue. If I were there, I would wear the Vogue sweater I knit in WoolEase bulky – it is seriously warm. In the spirit of Whole30, shouldn’t you be serving paleo bacon and eggs? If Olive posts her steps on the Fitbit site, I’d love to ‘friend’ her.
I have washed frogged yarn. This has happened when the project has been languishing in a bag at the at the back of the cupboard and I truly have no intention of completing said project. It makes it easier to re-purpose the yarn.
I never wash my frogged yarn. I just knit it as is, and so far it has always smoothed out when I block the item.
I love the comments about Olive as much as I enjoy the knitting post. I’m a fairly new visitor to the blog and, although we’ve never met, I feel as if I’ve known Ann forever because I have a long-time connection with USN.
I began knitting in 1961 and through the years have temporarily and engaged in various other needlework projects…Crewel in the 70’s, needlepoint and counted cross stitch in the 80’s and 90’s etc. Two years ago I finished a sweater for my grandson that I had begun for his father in the early 1970’s!!! That epitomizes the story of my knitting life!! I’ve started over with lessons every so often and, in the past 2 years, gifted everyone in the family with hats, but I may never progress past advanced beginner status. All that being said…I do love knitting and continue to buy yarn, patterns and kits. WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH ME?
I moved from Nashville 3 years ago and the whole stash moved with me. Now I’m moving to a smaller apartment here in CT, and it’s finally presenting an issue…I will have greatly reduced storage space but I can’t bear to part with these projects. Your blog will be an inspiration as I begin knitting my way through the yarn. I would love to take the train and join all y’all for the walk in the park but will be attending my granddaughters’ swim and gymnastics meets that weekend. Have fun! I hope the temp is higher than the 11 degrees we have this morning.
I have knit with frogged yarn. I have been known to knit directly from the offending knitted object, no pesky intermediary ball-winding. No ill effects. Yet. 🙂
Same here, and never a bad result. And I’ve done so with mohair and mohair blends, Silk Garden, sock yarns, worsted weight cottons . . . the garments all came out fine.
That is badass, Mary! Salute!
If I didn’t live in Washington State I would so be on that walk and wearing hand knit socks, hat, cowl and sweater. Also, I just knit a scarf with frogged yarn and it looks lovely after blocking!
I have knit directly from frogged yarn (as when I decided a top-down sweater was too short and ripped back the ribbing for another inch or so of stockinette) but if it is a complete do-0ver I frog the offending object directly onto my umbrella swift and then wash the resulting skein(s). When I decide what to do with the once-used yarn I wind it into balls and it feels almost like new.
Sorry I’ll miss the walk in the park wearing hand knits. BTW, it’s great to be reading you guys again.
Genius! Frogging directly onto an umbrella swift! Great idea for those of us whose husbands STILL haven’t made us a nitty-noddy. Ahem…
I’ve never frogged a delicate yarn but I might if the situation arose. I might feel concerned that the yarn might feel “stressed” by the “manhandling” and need a spa treatment. But probably that’s just me.
Compromise: it’s quick and easy to hold a steam iron over a kinky pile of yarn and watch those kinks relax considerably. Then just let the yarn dry somewhere while you eat a doughnut. (Just an example. I don’t know why a doughnut came to mind. Unless it’s because I have no doughnuts.)
Sure would love to join you in January, but at 730AM that day I’ll probably be walking back and forth between the goat barn and the kitchen faucet, carrying warm water out for the fiber-makers. I’ll try to remember to take a picture and tweet it, though…name yer hashtag!
Who can find the time to wash and reskein all that yarn when there are exercise classes and Central Park walking to check off our bullet journals?
My current knitting is a shawl, using yarn from the finished, blocked, unsatisfactory prototype of this shawl. I did not wash the lovely merino/silk fingering blend. I think it’s going to be fine. I hope! I’ve reknit an entire frogged sweater without washing the yarn, with no ill effect. But there’s always a first for everything…
Have fun with your walk in the park! Wish I could be there, but I’ll be on the left coast.
I have washed frogged yarn before, but most often I steam it. I have a plastic umbrella swift, which cannot stand up to unraveling knitting directly onto it, but I own a small ironing board (about 3′ long). I use a large binder clip on the curved end to keep the yarn from flipping off and unravel/reskein onto the ironing board. Once I’ve done that I use the steam on my iron to smooth it out and then rewind it into a ball. I can notice the difference in the finished object (even after being blocked or washed) where I ripped but didn’t follow through with steaming. It wouldn’t be noticeable to anyone else, but to me it will bother me until the sweater needs to be retired.
I’m another West Coast-er who very much wishes she could be with you for a walk in the park! Well, except for that pesky early start time. Because I have stayed dairy-less and wheat-less post Whole30, and even recently given up coffee(!), my beverage would be tea with almond milk, and my carb would probably be…baked apple, if such a thing were available. With a small handful of nuts.
I am lucky enough to have a partner who is a spinner, so we have two niddy noddys [niddy noddies? niddies noddy?] and have been known to re-skein and wash misbehaving yarns. My most recent frogging was half a ball of handspun, from a swatch that required much experimentation to get gauge. I unraveled it, and re-rolled the ball so the yarn I’d been swatching with could have a time out in the center of the ball…and maybe think about what it had done!
I find all this absolutely fascinating. Steaming it? Brilliant. Knitting directly from a failed project to a new one? Inspired. Microwaving it? Throw some popcorn in there and you’ll have a really great time.
And Laura, I am going to worry about the plural of niddy noddy. It’s like jump roping. We never said jumping rope; it was always let’s go jump roping.
I LEARN SOMETHING EVERY DAY, y’all.
Yay! Thank you Quinn, the steaming trick is brilliant. The only time I came a cropper of a rip-out was in a fine gauge merino wool color block project. The yarn never has settled down and in the future that yarn-y spaghetti will get piled onto the ironing board and steamed. Better to restore it to its unworked glory than stretch it into submission by winding into a ball (and possibly not getting true gauge when knit).
Never did wash or steam ripped yarn but will the next time. I was working up my own neckline to Kate Davies’ Boreal. Ended up with rows that just look “thin.” Thought it would block out. Reality was a different thing! That was a worsted to aran weight of wool. Maybe this varies by weight of yarn? Direction of spin, whether knitting style adds more spin? Number of plies? Certainly by fiber, I’d guess.
Knitting- a hobby of hit/miss or a lifetime research project!
WORD
sewing too
I get nervous whenever an iron is anywhere near my yarn, so after skeining the ripped yarn I steam it by boiling up a big bowl of water in the microwave, throwing in the re-skeined yarn and closing the door as quickly as I can, then waiting a half hour or so. The yarn relaxes nicely and extra moisture dries out of it quickly once it’s out. Then just roll it up and it’s ready to go. (Have been known to let the rest of the UFO dangling out the door of the microwave while the ripped yarn is getting its steam bath … )
Great idea!
I feel kinda OCD admitting that I almost always re skein frogged yarn, soak it in cold water and letting it dry before re knitting ( of course, that stranded hat that I have re knit 4 times, weeeeelll no, I did not wash it each time).
Ann I see you are getting a strong start on the “Do it, call it good, and move on” practice! I am glad you ripped it back, I didn’t appreciate the shoulder/shawly bit. I like my shawls lawng, y’all. And all this bad-girl talk about yarn time-outs and knitting direckly from the non-KonMari FO (not sparking the Joy) to the new item of Joy is just, well… wow ladies. Radical.
Niddy noddys I think is correct, not noddies. Because a noddy is not a thing by itself. I have at least 3 of them (they all spark joy)