Washing Problem

3 Responses to “Washing Problem”

On May 25th, 2009 at 1:35 pm Tina said:

Ok. Let’s puzzle this out. It didn’t happen to everyone, so it can’t be the yarn or the pattern, so that leaves the variations of individual knitters. When you’re knitting, it’s possible for it to look like you’re getting gauge, when really, you’re not. The stitches are just a tiny bit loose, not really loose enough that you would see that everything was off, but loose enough that there is wiggle room for the stitches. If you’re knitting with regular wool, this sometimes isn’t a big deal, because when the socks hit water, the yarn stretches out, but the scales on the wool hug each other and help things hold together. With superwash wool, there’s no scales, so when the yarn hits water, the yarn stretches out. If you were knitting tightly (or at a tighter gauge) then the yarn doesn’t really have anywhere to go, but if you were knitting a little loosely then it can stretch out that much more.

Sometimes putting the damp socks in the dryer for the weeist of bits, helps superwash regain it’s shape. You could try that, and next time, try going down a needle size and see if it helps, even if it looks like you’re getting gauge.

On May 26th, 2009 at 7:03 am Tanu said:

i throw my STR socks in the washing machine in the cold cycle along with the rest of my clothes. it seems to tighten them up. i lay them flat to dry.

On May 28th, 2009 at 6:22 pm Traci Heiner said:

All my socks get bigger the first time I wash them, then they get a little bigger still as I wear them a few times. I’m a loose knitter, that’s just my style, and I know that if they aren’t super snug at the beginning, they’ll be floppy.
You can usually predict if this will happen to you by knitting the gauge swatch, pulling on it a bit to simulate the stress it would get as a sock and then washing it. The hardest part is waiting for it to dry.

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