Letters
Picket Fence Afghan and Denim Yarn Q & A
Dear Ann,
I’m still cackling with glee about the Picket Fence Afghan in Modern Daily Knitting Field Guide No. 7.
It is divine. (Photo by sara remington.)
Ever since the summer of 2016, when I knit Julia Farwell-Clay’s Metronome Shawl, and then knit it again, I’ve had a dream: this design could be a blanket. Julia’s “unvention” of a switcheroo technique for changing colors in the middle of the row, without intarsia’s holes, or intarsia’s many ends to weave in later, is destined for color and pattern play over a larger canvas.
I love knitted blankets. I want all good ideas to be available in Blanket Format. I was thrilled that Julia was receptive to the idea.
Then, when we were picking yarns for the Field Guide, and somebody (you? Melanie?) said, “If the theme is ease, the perfect yarn is Rowan Denim,” I nearly lost my mind.
I’ve loved Rowan Denim since I first laid eyes on it, and I don’t really remember when that was. I don’t know why I am so drawn to a yarn that shrinks and fades, but why are millions of people, over generations and in every corner of the planet, in love with denim jeans and denim jackets? Why aren’t jeans and jackets just as good in regular twill fabric that doesn’t shrink or fade?
Well, they’re just not as good, and that’s a fact. There is something so lovely about the personality that comes from each person’s washing and wearing of denim garments, and from their mending and failing to mend. They show the marks of life. To knit with a yarn that lets this happen, with its effects further varied and enhanced by choice of stitch pattern, is a dream come true for me. I have enjoyed knitting with it for years, and I love my collection of Rowan Denim knits, which includes sweaters and blankets that are in constant use.
(Ooh look! I’ve got some squares that were left over from making the sample Picket Fence Afghan! Whatever shall I do with them?)
Every time I talk about denim, the questions come flooding forth from the knitters. Like prey animals, acutely sensitized to detect danger in sudden movement at the edges of their field of vision, knitters hear the word “shrink” and go absolutely blue (ha!) with fear.
So here is a syllabus on knitting with Rowan Denim that I hope will either quell these fears or make you decide that you will knit your Picket Fence Afghan with another yarn. (We have several lovely alternatives in the MDK Shop, just saying).
(I have seven squares, to be exact. )
Questions and Answers about Rowan Denim
Will your hands turn blue knitting with Rowan Denim?
Yes. It washes right off with soap and water.
Will your needles turn blue knitting with Rowan Denim?
If they are wood, yes. It will not wash off. If this bothers you, use metal needles.
(A nice long wrap, maybe with log cabin borders?)
Will your clothes or your furniture get blue from knitting with Rowan Denim?
In my decades of knitting with Rowan Denim, this has never happened to me. Never! I suppose it is a possibility, if you apply moisture and/or friction, to rub some of the dye off on any nearby textile. But simply sitting there knitting with (dry) Rowan Denim while wearing (dry) white pants on a (dry) white sofa is not something I am afraid of. I knitted on a giant Rowan Denim jacket, in the darkest shade, all the way to China and back in the hot, dank summer of 2002, sometimes with a drooling baby girl on my lap, without messing up my clothes (or hers).
If you knit with Rowan Denim in combination with other colors, will the blue bleed onto the other colors when you wash the item?
Yes. In the first wash, when the biggest fade happens, pale colors might take on a blue tinge. You can avoid this by using “color catchers” (white cloths that are treated to pick up dye from the water) in the washer, or a liquid called Synthrapol.
Or you can just wash it again. This happened to me once, in a European machine that got the water extremely hot. The blanket I was washing was the photography sample for a project in our first book, the Courthouse Steps blanket, which had a lot of white strips in it. The white strips turned pale blue. I turned pale blue. Then I washed it a few more times, and the pale blue went back to white, and seemed even brighter white for having been temporarily blued.
In the case of the Picket Fence Afghan sample, the colored bits did not turn blue when I washed them. Then again, they were not the sort of colors that you could easily notice if they got took on a slightly blue cast.
(Or how about a nine-patch baby blanket? It would measure about 33″ x 33.” I would get to make two more blocks!)
In the Picket Fence Afghan, Rowan Denim is used alongside bits of Rowan Handknit Cotton. What happens when you wash the afghan, and the Denim shrinks and the Handknit Cotton doesn’t shrink? Do you have to lay down and die at this point, or just be furious at Kay Gardiner forever?
Here is where I am going to blow your mind: all cotton shrinks when you wash it in hot water and dry it in the dryer, as recommended for Rowan Denim.
Repeat: all cotton shrinks.
The reason we don’t think of Handknit Cotton as a yarn that shrinks is that the care instructions are: wash in warm water (40 degrees C/104 degrees F); do not machine dry. These care instructions are intended to avoid shrinking!
So if you disregard those instructions, and machine wash (at 60-70 degrees C/140-160 degrees F) and machine dry your afghan, the Handknit Cotton shrinks right along with the Denim.
The proof of this is in the sample: even shrinkage throughout.
I have combined Rowan Denim with other cotton yarns, chiefly Tahki Cotton Classic, a shiny mercerized cotton. Guess what—it shrank! Knowing this about cotton yarns eliminates this worry; you can freely mix Rowan Denim with other cotton yarns.
For completeness, here’s a photo of Rowan’s explanation of how to work with Rowan Denim.
I do not agree with everything they say, particularly that bit about washing the yarn you are going to sew up with. It’s admittedly “not essential,” and in my opinion just adds to the nervousness about working with this yarn. Everything is going to be fine!
I’m here (and in the Lounge) for all Rowan Denim questions. I love evangelizing for, and educating about, this amazing yarn.
Come at me!
Love,
Kay
Here we go again! It was a Kay Ode to Rowan Denim Yarn such as this a few years ago that resulted in 15 skeins of Rowan Denim snoozing in my stash. I am just beginning the perfect Denim Sweater (Hayward) with said skeins. I feel more RDY moving toward my shopping cart………
I’ve fallen in love with it, too…..
It’s obvious. Keep knitting those blocks, Kay.
I am a loyal denim disciple and I bow to you, Kay, the Denim Master. I have a colleague who is a new knitter and a new auntie. She is all about knitting adorable baby clothes right now, and last week, in a stroke of genius, I showed her the MDK baby jeans pattern “Blu.” As soon as she finishes the adorable grandpa cardi she is making for her new nephew, she will be casting on baby jeans! I happen to have a huge stash of Rowan Denim so I can get her started right away. (Insert maniacal laughter here)
I really enjoyed how you had two articles here – the main one and then the mini story about what to do with the remaining 7 squares in all of the picture captions. Is knitting with denim like knitting with cotton, i.e., a bit harder on the hands?
Oh duh. And now I see that denim is cotton. Excuse me while I go drink my coffee now.
Sounds good Kay. Really. Really. Good.
love reading your love of the denim. and yes ! so many possibilites for new directions with those building blocks. xo and bises !
I’ve knit several sweaters with Rowan denim and while I like the yarn and the look of the finished project, I have NEVER had the sweater I’ve made shrink as much as directions on Rowan patterns say it will and I always end up with a really over sized sweater that is not at all what I’ve wanted. (Plus when you knit as much as they say you need to knit….which is always more than I’d knit in a regular garment….in order to accommodate the shrinkage and then it doesn’t shrink…it leaves me feeling a little bit homicidal toward the Rowan people!) This isn’t a problem with a blanket, but it makes me reluctant to ever knit another garment out of Denim, no matter how much I like the yarn. Any thoughts?
I made a skirt from Rowan Denim, just to see what Kay was so excited about, and it ended up being the perfect size after washing. I think I managed the shrinkage question by washing & drying a swatch before I started the project, then calculating my gauge from there.
Does anyone else remember their Mother adding a few drops of “Bluing” to the load of “whites” to make them “whiter”?
I do. What I remember more is when our ten-year-old daughter discovered my bottle of bluing in the cupboard and, using more than “a few drops,” turned the white parts of our miniature schnauzer quite blue. (I think I had mentioned to her that ladies with white hair used to enjoy a bluing rinse.)
Years ago I made the Sk8r sweater for my then 8 year old grandson. (As promised, it was the only sweater he was willing to wear then, and he wore it till he outgrew it, and then said he would rather have a sweatershirt now) Anyway,I made it with Rowan Demim and i sewed it up with the same yarn, it all shrank together at the same rate. An act of faith well rewarded; i often think of making one for myself; it is still a magnificent design.
The first time I ever skied I wore a brand new pair of jeans. I was the easiest person to find on the mountain because I left a big blue swoosh in the snow whenever I fell. Which was a lot!
Remember Frye boots? The original Fryes, not the revived ones, the seventies Fryes. Well, my mother bought me a pair of Fryes (which she hated) for Christmas and I got a new pair of jeans a couple of weeks later. The jeans ruined the boots as the dye never did come out. Ah, the agony of the 15 year old self. Mother did not gloat, big of her. Be careful what you wish for was not said either. This was 42 years ago.
Ever learn to enjoy skiing?
Excellent and informative article. I know wish to go purchase Rowan denim and play
I drank the Kool Aid several years ago. Most of my Rowan denim is still in my carefully curated collection of fiber. I will now add more to the collection until I have time to knit up the box of loveliness that came in the mail yesterday from MDK! Made my day!
Still floors me that we both went to China in summer 2002
One of these days I may join you on the denim train, but I am wary of inflexible plant fibers…
Instead of a hank of sewing-up yarn, I throw a swatch in with the pieces to be shrunken, then unravel it and sew. It beats having a hank get all tangled and frayed.
Is there any difference between the “old” Rowan denim and the “new” Rowan denim? Rowan took it off the market for a few years while they fiddled with it. Do. Both versions handle the same and shrink the same?
Make the nine-patch baby blanket. Olive, your star model, needs a throw for her chaise longue. Her feet get cold in those frigid NY winters…;-)!
I second that. A blanket for Olive,
I just assumed that all Kay’s blankets are Olives.
In the early 2000s I was a prodigal knitter returning to the fold. I needed lots of help and practice. I turned to MDK (lots of garter stitch I could manage with beautiful results), and WendyKnits (wonderful socks I could knit and glorious sweaters I could dream of).
In the mid twenty-aughts you gave me DENIM. I bought Modern Daily Knitting and Indigo Knits. I bought a lot of Rowan Denim. I got a first class education in what to do with this yarn.
If you want to know all about knitting with Denim and other cotton yarn, go to the top right of this page, click on the magnifying glass and search “denim.” Those posts from 2006-2008 will pop right up.
Do not miss “Dress Your Family in Denim and Denim” (wherein a tour bus drives into the Thames) or “More Thoughts on Denim and Squareness” (about squares staying square after washing and Kay and Belinda strongly refute Rowan’s instructions about washing before making up).
I am so happy to see this new pattern!
Oh wait, silly me..you have kindly provided links to those letters As Belinda would say, “brilliant.”
love. love. love. I meant to confiscate those extra squares….
Hmmm….. my Ravelry stash isn’t showing it, but I believe there are a few skeins of old Rowan Denim in my actual stash, left over from the last time Kay told me I needed it! I know I made at least one pair of baby Blu jeans at that time, and maybe some other stuff.
I believe in denim, both as twill and yarn! Thank you for answering my unasked question about how the Rowan Handknit Cotton yarn plays with the denim. One thing I don’t believe that you mentioned is how soft the denim yarn gets after years of washing. I have a small pillowcase I made from Rowan yarn for a small “assistant” pillow I put behind my head or between my knees, as needed. It is my favorite of all the small pillowcases I have made or purchased, as the soft denim is so comforting!
Pillows, curtains, man bags, or pass them forward.
I didn’t see that anyone had washed their skeins of indigo dyed cotton, prior to knitting. Indigo is a different kind of dye and lies on the surface of the yarn. It does tend to ‘crock’ (leave its color on other items). Synthrapol works for me and helps to eliminate the excess dye and crocking..
Does prewashing take care of shrinkage too?
Thank you so much. I was given 20 balls of the original Rowan Denim and you have answered all my concerns about using the yarn.
I wonder if you might have any guidance for making his with fingering weight yarn? I ask because I have a LOT of wonderful fingering weight that I would like to use before buying more yarn that needs tender, loving, storage!
Thanks for any hints that you might have!
Hi Kay,
I want to knit something for my twin brother’s special birthday with the original denim yarn. I looked on Ravelry and I have Indigo Knits, but haven’t found “IT”. He doesn’t like anything fussy. Can the original be substituted for the new denim yarn (it is listed as DK)? Are there any patterns you’ve seen that you’d recommend?
Thanks for any suggestions.