lost my mojo
I've been knitting...I really have, however, there have been some serious mishaps. I'm usually pretty lucky with my knitting. I have my bumps, (remember the baby sweater with the pieces made in two different sizes?) but I can usually recover. Now, it has been one project mess up after another. I feel like I've lost my knitting mojo and I don't know how to get it back. Oh, and I don't have any pictures either.
I finished the scarves for the gay boyfriends. You remember them. They were part of the brown collection.
All I needed to do was put them in an envelop or box and mail them off, but I got to thinking about how one edge of the lighter one looked a little dingy (Is that how you spell it?). Anyway, I decided I would wash them both. I soaked them in a bit of Dr. Bronner's and lukewarm water. When I got back to them they smelled horrid. Well, not horrid, but bad. Like wet animal. I decided that I would put a little fabric softener on them to "take care of the smell" and soften them up. I didn't have any in the house and didn't want to walk down to the car so I went to Kasan's for some. He announced that it was high end fabric softener, the best I would ever use. I gave him a yeah whatever, and went back home. I was reluctant to use the Lavender Vanilla stuff, but laziness won out. I used it. I knew it was a bad thing, immediately. I squeezed them out per all the instructions I've read about blocking and knit pieces and they looked stretched. Then my mind said, why not toss them into the dryer? That should fluff them back up. So, I went downstairs, which is what I was avoiding with the Lavender Vanilla fabric softener, and popped the scarves into the dryer.
I decided to do no heat, because I didn't want them felting (although it was superwash yarn). When I went back down to check on them they were twisted around each other, and looking sort of matted. I let them go for another half hour on low heat and when I returned (are you counting? that's two trips down the stairs) they were again wrapped around each other in a large mass. I took the scarves, which now smelled like bug spray, back up to my apartment and laid them out. They looked matted, stretched and were covered with fibers from each other. They had started out at about 6 feet long each, and were now closer to 8 maybe 9 feet. It was almost midnight, and I just couldn't deal. So I laid them out on the living room floor, because how could that hurt them?, and went to bed.
The next day they looked even more horrible. More matted. Sort of like a scarf looks after a season of heavy use. AND they smelled like bug spray. I asked the Burbank SnB ladies who are also spinners how I could "fix" my fuck up and they said, re-soak and stretch them out width wise, and that should help them spring back. I did as they instructed and that didn't help. So, I took them with me to the SnB in Burbank the next week for them to inspect. The ladies were really nice about it. The scarves didn't look that bad they said. Try shaving them, they suggested. I grunted in disgust and stuck them back in my bag. The next night at the Atwater/Silverlake SnB (yes, I go to two of them to see friends I'll miss because of school)and Clare was a bit more honest. She told me they looked bad, and then she and I proceeded to rip them out. She did the dark brown one and I did the sand colored one. We didn't finish, but I got the sand one done the next day...the dark brown one is still holding. I should take a picture of it for you, but since I don't have a good before shot you won't be able to tell.
Heather at Burbank SnB explained to me how to revitalize the yarn. The only issue is the smell. I'm hoping blast of a different fabric softner will help it. Probably not.
So, let's review how Tevana could have avoided this headache:
1) Most obvious: NOT wet the scarves in an attempt to make something that was perfectly fine better.
2) Gone down the effing stairs for her own fabric softener so that they wool didn't end up smelling like bug spray.
3) Not put them in the same dryer, and maybe used a little bit of heat.
I can't think of any others. I just think that if Tevana had never wet the scarves to begin with, this never would have happened.
I'll tell you about the Bump Sweater debacle tomorrow.
I finished the scarves for the gay boyfriends. You remember them. They were part of the brown collection.
All I needed to do was put them in an envelop or box and mail them off, but I got to thinking about how one edge of the lighter one looked a little dingy (Is that how you spell it?). Anyway, I decided I would wash them both. I soaked them in a bit of Dr. Bronner's and lukewarm water. When I got back to them they smelled horrid. Well, not horrid, but bad. Like wet animal. I decided that I would put a little fabric softener on them to "take care of the smell" and soften them up. I didn't have any in the house and didn't want to walk down to the car so I went to Kasan's for some. He announced that it was high end fabric softener, the best I would ever use. I gave him a yeah whatever, and went back home. I was reluctant to use the Lavender Vanilla stuff, but laziness won out. I used it. I knew it was a bad thing, immediately. I squeezed them out per all the instructions I've read about blocking and knit pieces and they looked stretched. Then my mind said, why not toss them into the dryer? That should fluff them back up. So, I went downstairs, which is what I was avoiding with the Lavender Vanilla fabric softener, and popped the scarves into the dryer.
I decided to do no heat, because I didn't want them felting (although it was superwash yarn). When I went back down to check on them they were twisted around each other, and looking sort of matted. I let them go for another half hour on low heat and when I returned (are you counting? that's two trips down the stairs) they were again wrapped around each other in a large mass. I took the scarves, which now smelled like bug spray, back up to my apartment and laid them out. They looked matted, stretched and were covered with fibers from each other. They had started out at about 6 feet long each, and were now closer to 8 maybe 9 feet. It was almost midnight, and I just couldn't deal. So I laid them out on the living room floor, because how could that hurt them?, and went to bed.
The next day they looked even more horrible. More matted. Sort of like a scarf looks after a season of heavy use. AND they smelled like bug spray. I asked the Burbank SnB ladies who are also spinners how I could "fix" my fuck up and they said, re-soak and stretch them out width wise, and that should help them spring back. I did as they instructed and that didn't help. So, I took them with me to the SnB in Burbank the next week for them to inspect. The ladies were really nice about it. The scarves didn't look that bad they said. Try shaving them, they suggested. I grunted in disgust and stuck them back in my bag. The next night at the Atwater/Silverlake SnB (yes, I go to two of them to see friends I'll miss because of school)and Clare was a bit more honest. She told me they looked bad, and then she and I proceeded to rip them out. She did the dark brown one and I did the sand colored one. We didn't finish, but I got the sand one done the next day...the dark brown one is still holding. I should take a picture of it for you, but since I don't have a good before shot you won't be able to tell.
Heather at Burbank SnB explained to me how to revitalize the yarn. The only issue is the smell. I'm hoping blast of a different fabric softner will help it. Probably not.
So, let's review how Tevana could have avoided this headache:
1) Most obvious: NOT wet the scarves in an attempt to make something that was perfectly fine better.
2) Gone down the effing stairs for her own fabric softener so that they wool didn't end up smelling like bug spray.
3) Not put them in the same dryer, and maybe used a little bit of heat.
I can't think of any others. I just think that if Tevana had never wet the scarves to begin with, this never would have happened.
I'll tell you about the Bump Sweater debacle tomorrow.
posted by tb at 9:58 AM
1 Comments:
tee hee you get yer bloglines button , you got yer button !
going to add you right now :D
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