Have you ever?
Thursday September 11th 2014, 10:12 pm
Filed under: Knitting a Gift

My good sense says knit merino in superwash only for a new mom to have to deal with. We’re talking blankets here, not outfits. (I’m listening to at least some of those instincts.)

I…was actually knitting a superwash baby blanket. I have spent the last three days looking for it. And my good packable sunproof straw hat, for that matter, that I was wearing Saturday. Both have vanished.

I’ve gone from frustration to a certain sense of freedom: I could simply start over. I could choose anything. (Did you look in–yes I did. And? Yes. And? Twice.)

If you’ve ever knit with something like Malabrigo Finito you’ll understand why my fingers want to wrap that baby in the very softest ever–or maybe cashmere from Colourmart, as long as I’m dreaming, since they’re about the same. There are those who will tell you cashmere never shrinks, and then there’s me saying that when my kids were small I bought a cashmere sweater labeled size 42 for fifty cents at a yard sale because it fit my six-year-old; someone out there had had a really, really bad day doing laundry. (We, though, totally won.)

Would you do it? Would you knit it on really-too-big needles so that when it shrinks like crazy it wouldn’t be too far off from what you intended in the first place?

This is called, okay, talk some sense into me: back away from the pretty. Put it back. Don’t do it.

But maybe?


5 Comments so far
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I see you have those little gremlins too, you know, the ones that hide your things when you’re sleeping. What’s so aggravating is that I always find the lost item in the place where it was supposed to be all along!

Comment by Jody 09.12.14 @ 4:56 am

Those in the Mom generation would never think of knitting for kids/babies with anything but superwash. The Gramma generation, however, just want that soft cloud to envelop the baby/child in her absence.
I say, if you know that mom will know better and do her best with the washing, knit what you love for the ones you are loving through your knitting. 🙂

Comment by Pam 09.12.14 @ 7:35 am

rarely – use super wash yarn – and knit the lushest yarn that I can afford, on larger needles for a “smaller” product! as well, wash and “full” yarn in the skein before knitting, and swatch with that, and wash that, then knit. I’m in both the “Mom” generation and the “Gram-Mom” generation.

Comment by LaceLady 09.12.14 @ 11:58 am

Good, REAL, cashmere doesn’t shrink. I do a swatch, trace it on paper, and run it through the washer to be sure. My first grandbaby is getting a cashmere blanket for sure!

(and any that come after, of course!)

Comment by twinsetellen 09.12.14 @ 5:33 pm

The Borrowers have been busy at your house, too. While I was hosting out at the cabin this summer,one brass colored dpn and one 6 inch steel measure went down the cracks in the plank floor. I can only imagine what someone will say when they find them, 100 years from now. No, I would not knit it huge and hope it would shrink down. But I will use Size 7 needles to knit a shawl in sport weight. LOL

Comment by Sherry in Idaho 09.12.14 @ 6:01 pm



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