When I give people things knit in superwash wool, I tell them it won’t shrink.

Although, a more accurate description would be, it boomerangs.

Sheep’s wool, unlike from other animals, has these microscopic scales that, when you add in water, temperature change, and agitation, interlock and latch onto each other: the wool shrinks and sometimes it ripples all funny but it can be very useful for all kinds of purposes when you want it turned into felt.

A superwash treatment coats those scales so they just sliiide right on past each other.

All by way of saying, my carry-around project suddenly isn’t anymore and in my surprise I forgot to take its picture first.

As it dries it will shrink back closer to the size it was coming off the needles, with some variance for the fact that lace stitches of themselves relax out the moment they’re wet.

So. Malabrigo Rios, Gemini colorway, US 7 needles, 90 stitches to start, and if you look closely there’s this slight jog (more like the jogger was limping) about a third of the way up where instead of doing a plain row between the yarn over rows, I put in an extra yarn over at each point where the next one would go, ie on the equivalent of the wrong-side row. That took my stitch count to 99 to give a little bit of shape rather than just a straight tube to the thing.

Not only is the cowl wet, it’s upside down in the photo. But that’s okay, we can still have nice things.