We wouldn't
want to ruin any
beautiful yarn.
1
Let go of the romantic notion
that recipients are going to take
great care in caring for their
hand knit gift.
The first tip is knowing your
giftee. There are those who
carefully hand wash their favorite
knits and take a great deal of
time and care to ensure their
clothing survives as long as
possible, but every person has
their own habits. If you know
your favorite cousin isn't going to
carefully hand wash a garment,
opt for a machine washable yarn.
Superwash or a synthetic fiber
like acrylic or nylon. As beautiful
as some blends can be, you
don’t want to put time, effort,
blood, sweat and tears into a
project to have it felted after the
first wash. It's only going to make
your recipient feel guilty and you
wishing you had known what was
coming.
.5
The best way to tell
how your yarn will
react to washing is to
wash your swatch.
2
My second tip would be to
communicate clearly what the
washing instructions would be for
these garments. There are a few
different ways you can do this,
the first is by simply verbalizing
it. After your gift has been
opened and the joy of a hand
knit garment has receded, just
say “oh by the way, to wash this…”
Easy peasy. Just make sure you’re
giving these instructions to the
right person. I wouldn’t want to
tell my father how to wash the
hand knit socks I gave him, when
I know my mom will be the one
actually washing them.
If you’re worried these
instructions will be forgotten, or
simply want to provide a backup,
you can slip some written or
printed washing instructions
into the gift bag or box. Perhaps
fasten them to the garment with
a safety pin to ensure they’re not
lost in the chaos of Christmas
paper that so often happens.
You could also provide a sample
size packet of wool wash if
the garment requires a rinse
free detergent and place the
instructions with the wool wash.
If you want to get fancy about
it, I’ve heard of people creating
their own labels to be sewn into
garments, a hand wash and a
machine wash instructional label.
Sewn along an edge or on the
inside of a garment, just like
anything store bought.
Hopefully all the hand knit gifts
out there survive the holidays
and the first wash after with
the 2.5 tips on sharing washing
instructions for knits. May you
have the opportunity to teach
non-knitters about the art of
washing their garments and
keeping the love alive. As knitters
we put our heart and soul into
what we make, to wrap our
friends and family in our love.
The couple extra steps in washing
will be well worth the effort.
Intense patterns such
as cables can be steam
blocked to keep the
depth of the stitches.
KNITmuch | issue 2
37