Thinking out loud
Wednesday August 21st 2013, 10:28 pm
Filed under: Knit,Knitting a Gift

This photo shows the colors a lot better than last night’s. I’ve now gone on to stripe five.

Question: it’s about 48″ wide and the length looks like it will be anywhere from 34″ snapped back together to easily 46″ and more, given the elasticity of the pattern. That should be enough, right? (An example of the Pythagorean pattern knitted up can be seen here. Lots of patterns-within-patterns and textures for a baby to explore.)

But I just read the reviews on Cascade 220 superwash on Ravelry, and there are a lot of warnings that after the third or fourth time through the washer and dryer it suddenly shrinks up quite a bit.

That would effect the length the most. I don’t really want to do more than the planned seven stripes. The eye is much more pleased with odd numbers than even, and going all the way to nine is looking really unlikely tonight: as it gets bigger it’s heavier on my hands, and they are not happy. (Maybe, ice or no ice, I shouldn’t knit six+ hours a day three days in a row?)

If anyone has any experience with this yarn’s behavior in the laundry, though, I’d love to hear it. (It’s the 220 from the Peruvian mill, not the more recent Chinese version; this was a gift from my friends Rachel and Kathy’s stashes.) Because I’m going to tell the parents not to baby the blankie, just their sweet baby Hayes. And if that means I need to add an eighth stripe, I need to add an eighth stripe.

Thoughts?


8 Comments so far
Leave a comment

I love the dimensions you suggest. Love the odd number of stripes. Love the patterns-within-patterns and textures for baby to explore.

But I don’t know a thing about shrinkage and Cascade 220 Superwash. Sorry.

Comment by RobinM 08.22.13 @ 7:47 am

I’ve only used that yarn in gift-knitting. A quick check with FIL – and MJ is not a careful laundry woman – yields input suggesting any shrinkage over 2-3 winters was undected.

Comment by Channon 08.22.13 @ 8:25 am

I have some limited experience with the Cascade 220 super wash. It does shrink some after washing and blocking. I’ve given most of the items I knit with it away, but I don’t think it shrinks a lot, just that if you run it through the dryer, it pretty much winds up at the preblocked size. That was my experience with my swatches, which admittedly, I don’t normally wash a million times. However, with superwash, I usually test drive both blocking and just running through the dryer to get a sense of what will happen size-wise. I should also add that my gauge swatches always lie, so I never trust them anyway. Bottom line: prepare for some shrinkage if you block and then tell the parents to put it in the dryer. It’s not as if you’ll wind up with a handkerchief instead of a blanket!

Comment by Shadylady 08.22.13 @ 8:31 am

I think it’ll be fine at 7. 🙂 I’ve worked some with the cascade 220 sw, and (as others have said) it does “snap back” to pre-blocked size in the dyer. The beauty part is that the softness and texture are not lost because the thing is un-blocked…and it will be well-loved until that tiny baby is a big, grown-up man in such a workhorse wool! It is a handsome work!!!

Comment by Pam 08.22.13 @ 8:38 am

Me? Think? I think not.

Comment by Donald Meyer 08.22.13 @ 8:55 am

Ooh, I think the hat on that link is intriguing.

Pretty stuff!

Comment by Marian 08.22.13 @ 10:08 am

Seven should be fine….as boy grows blankie ‘shrinks’ anyway….right?

Comment by Ruth 08.22.13 @ 2:49 pm

Perhaps it wouldn’t be babying the blanket to wash by machine and air dry? Or to start doing that if they detect any sign of felting?

On the other hand, there is a reason our knitting group at work has used C220 for knitting helmet liners for the military – it stands up to wear. I think for a blanket, you will be fine!

Comment by twinsetellen 08.22.13 @ 9:27 pm



Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

(required)

(required)