Hand wash and lay flat to dry is one of the more common expressions in the knitting community. A common expression among knitters. No?

Why Lay Flat To Dry?

I guess when you lay out a sweater or a blanket to dry, you also want to wet-block it a little. Laying it flat helps put shaping back into a wet, wool garment.

When it comes to socks, I’m not really sure I need them re-shaped after washing. The first time I put them on my feet they’ll conform to the shape of my foot anyway.

But regardless…every garment I sell at craft shows comes with the standard instruction.

It’s always better to make instructions simple and standard. Even when the garment isn’t wool. Hand-washing knits helps to make sure woven-in ends don’t come loose. Or that a snap or zipper won’t snag the yarn and put a pull in your hard work.

Honestly, with the amount of hand-knit or hand-cranked socks I have, I don’t hand-wash them. They’re mostly superwash and/or have nylon in them. So I wash them in the machine on delicate. I machine-wash knits separately to avoid any snagging catastrophes. The spin cycle alone saves a boatload of time.

Laying them all out on a queen-sized bed that is covered with towels is time-consuming enough.

Do you have any insider tips for washing hand-knits?

Current Knitting

Next week I’m at the Men’s Spring Knitting Retreat at Easton Mountain. In addition to wanting to wear clean, hand-knit/cranked socks, I also have two workshops to present. I’ve organized all the materials for the Helical Striped Knitting Workshops and it’s ready to present!

Eleven guys will each get a started cowl and a pattern. They’ll also get a handout summarizing the workshop material and as many contrasting colors of yarn for their cowl to help in practicing the technique. It’s a somewhat large group to demonstrate close-up work, so I’m anticipating that I’ll project my work onto a television screen behind me for everyone to see. I’ll let you know how that works out.

I also got some minimal amount of work done on the Garter Striped Scarf I started.

It’s not may favorite color combination I’ve ever done. But it’s soft and kind of elegant. It will sell at the craft show.

Good enough, I guess.